Only Human
by dooder's nin
Summary: When a group of supposed educational representatives decide that Jackson is human enough for them to take him out of Monster High into their own school, a horrible plan comes to light. What happens when one side of two halves is repressed for too long? The others must rescue him before madness takes over completely. Sequel to Feral and part of Triangles series but may be read alone


Whistles from the heavy wind outside the windows as a thunder and lightning storm raged on outside the walls of Monster High made getting through classes a little difficult for those students who weren't particularly accustomed to that sort of background noise. For plenty of others, especially for a gargoyle like Rochelle, this was a familiar atmosphere that made the day all the more pleasant. Others simply tolerated the stormy atmosphere. Frankie and her usual group of friends weren't too put off by it either, considering that Frankie felt more refreshed every time a lightning discharge was close enough for her to pick up on. As they made their way to their next class, the girls sat in their regular seats in the stadium seating classroom, their guys either behind or in front of them.

"Is there going to be a substitute or something?" Lagoona asked as she and the other students looked around for their teacher to find that it had already been five minutes after the bell had rang and no teacher had shown up yet.

"I don't know, but another ten minutes and we can head out for a free period." Clawd answered, finding that idea to be the best news he had gotten all day. There had been a bit of a commotion earlier with the Headmistress and some human visitors that had resulted in them closing the gym down briefly while she reluctantly had shown them all of their facilities. He had wondered what is was all about, since he could practically smell the tension between her and those visitors.

"That would be great since I didn't get to study for the history quiz we're supposed to have today." Jackson said, having already pulled out his notes to take advantage of the spare time before the teacher should eventually show up.

"You didn't study for a quiz?" Deuce asked his friend disbelievingly. "Dude, I doubt you'd need to study, but that doesn't sound like you." He said, chuckling a little at Jackson's frustrated look while his friend tried to continue to read his notes quickly.

"No, it sounds like Holt." Jackson sighed, giving up on the pretext of simply not listening to his friends. "He got home later than he's supposed to and covered in unbelievably sticky silly-string." Jackson grumbled. "I woke up to mom trying to pry it out of our hair with baby oil or something…" Jackson said, not amused at all by the giggles that erupted from the girls as they imagined that scene.

"So needless to say, you were otherwise occupied for the rest of the night." Cleo snickered. "I thought I saw Holt messing around with some of the cans that had been set up…"she began to explain, nudging Draculaura to help her with the details.

"Oh right! He had grabbed a couple and was trying to pry the lids off at once to spray into the crowd." She said, eyes widening as she remembered. "He wasn't getting very far and let his flame do the work for him – I don't know if that was intentional or not, he looked kind of like Heath does when his flame sneaks up on him…" she trailed off.

"Hey!" Heath said, looking insulted at the notion that he had no control over where and when his flame would appear. But he said nothing else as Abbey chuckled and patted him on the shoulder. "Is okay. Makes you…spontaneous. Full of surprises. Abbey find you very interesting." She said, gaining a smile from him.

"Anyway, the pressure in the cans and the flame meant boom and silly string erupted everywhere." Clawdeen finished their explanation, noticing Jackson's frustration with the drawn-out story and clearly wanting to return to scanning his notes.

"And onto Holt…" Jackson concluded, shaking his head. "I wish he would be more careful sometimes. Was the damage contained to him?" he asked, flipping a page in his notebook. The girls giggled again, causing him to look up with a wary look on his face. Frankie also seemed to be blushing like mad, sparks emitting from her bolts despite the already highly electric atmosphere. "What?" he asked slowly, looking back and forth among his friends as his girlfriend chose to try and make herself as small as possible.

"Like we said, Holt had been having a rough time getting the things to open so Frankie decided to try and help, but Holt had already starting on his brilliant backup plan." Clawd began to explain, the goofy grin that was plastered to his face making all the more difficult to get the words out.

"So he got you all sticky too?" Jackson asked Frankie, who nodded. "Oh, sorry. It must have taken forever for you to get it out of your hair too. Oh, it probably ruined your outfit too. Sorry Frankie." Jackson apologized, thinking that was the end of the story. But the grins on the others' faces clued him in to there being more for him to hear. "Alright, what's so funny?" he asked, fully abandoning his efforts to study so he could turn around completely to face the others. Clawdeen and Draculaura couldn't contain themselves anymore and burst out laughing as they thought back on last night.

"What?" Jackson asked again, not enjoying the suspense his friends were putting him through. Still chuckling, Lagoona took pity on him and answered. "Well, Holt had been holding the cans by his waist to shoot off into the crowd, so when Frankie reached for one of the cans and it went off, you two were stuck together with her hand on your…ahem…on a particular area of Holt's body." She explained. Frankie made a small squeaking noise and covered her blushing face with her hands, sparks flying now.

"Oh…" Jackson said, a blank look on his face as he realized what she was saying. "Please tell me nobody saw that." He asked, a blush starting to form on his face. Heath snickered loudly as he pulled out his phone.

"Only those of us close enough to take pictures…" Heath said, handing his phone over to his cousin. Jackson took a look at the picture before a mortified look spread across his face, ensuing laughs from his friends again. "Heath, why would you take a picture? I'm deleting this." Jackson said.

"Go ahead. I've got it on my computer at home too." Heath snickered as Jackson just gave him his phone back. Abbey glanced over to look at her boyfriend's phone. "Ha ha. Is funny." She laughed before trying to get Frankie to stop sending jolts out to everyone. The other students in the classroom were starting to pay attention to them from their behavior.

"Oh my ghoul!" Frankie moaned, extremely embarrassed. Jackson coughed nervously as he absorbed this information about his alter ego. "Well, that explains why you've been acting funny around me today." Jackson said to her. "This is just…awkward." He said, shifting a little in his seat. "Don't let that picture out or Frankie's dad might decide to kill me, resurrect me, only to be able to kill me again." He said. Frankie leaned forward onto the table to talk to Jackson when a rustling from the rest of the students signaled that the fifteen minute mark had passed and students were getting ready to leave. She also decided that maybe heading out would be a good thing for her to be able to recover from her embarrassment. But before anyone could actually leave, their teacher entered with Headmistress Bloodgood and the visitors who'd been practically everywhere in the school it seemed.

"Sit back down students. There will be class today. There were other circumstances that caused me to run a little late, but we can begin now." Their teacher said, earning some groans from the other students. Frankie and her friends watched with curiosity as their headmistress and the three human visitors took a seat in the back of the classroom, clearly meant to be observing. She nudged Jackson with her elbow to get his attention.

"Do you have any idea why there might be normie visitors to school today?" she asked, wondering if he'd heard anything about school inspections or something. Jackson glanced over his shoulder before turning back to her and shrugging. "No clue. Maybe we'll find out soon." He said, continuing to write down notes. Frankie glanced over at their guests once more before returning to at least appear focused on her studies.

Towards the end of class, she noticed that Heath had begun to nod off. Frankie indicated to Abbey that her boyfriend was about to face-plant onto the desk so that she could possibly quietly wake him up. But it would seem that Heath was just as jumpy in his sleeping state as his awakened state and Abbey's gentle touch startled him into awareness and causing him to ignite his hair and hands. He shot a small burst of flame ahead of him, unfortunately hitting Jackson in the face with it and knocking his cousin's glasses off.

"Aw Heath!" Jackson whined, wiping his face to be sure that Heath hadn't singed his eyebrows off again. Standing up, Jackson went to retrieve his glasses while his cousin stammered out an apology. This likely wasn't the first time that he had done that to Jackson as they were growing up, but doing so in front of so many other people required him to try and refrain from laughing at Jackson's response. But Heath managed to only snicker a few times as his cousin picked up his glasses and wiped off the dust.

"I think you may have scratched the lens on this pair Heath." Jackson said, holding up the glasses to inspect them. He rubbed them a few more times before putting them back on. "No, they're okay. Geez, man, watch it." Jackson said, shaking his head and returning to his seat as the other students laughed.

"I have seen enough!" One of the human men said, standing up to storm out of the seats. "This is exactly why this school needs this evaluation." He said, his colleagues also seeming agitated as Headmistress Bloodgood attempted to explain things to them.

"There's no need for alarm gentlemen. I agreed to give you a tour of the facilities and to sit in on a class with our human student, but you must understand…." She began to explain, Jackson looking confused at the commotion, unsure of why he might be the center of the argument.

"You did not have to agree, we have a court order to evaluate the safety provided to all students, including the human students that should attend this institution." The woman of the three visitors said, voice as sharp as the first man that had spoken. "We have seen enough to warrant his removal to a more suitable school."

"What?! No!" Jackson said in alarm as he and the other students comprehended what was going on. He quickly stood up from his seat to walk over to one of the men. "He's my cousin. That his normal behavior. He does that sort of thing to me at home too." Jackson tried to defend himself. But that seemed to only get the human educational representatives even more agitated. "Plus…I'm….I'm only partly human." Jackson said, rushing back to his backpack that he had brought with him to pull out his headphones. He figured that by showing him his Hyde side rather than trying to call a small flame to his hand in this form might be more persuasive of an argument to these people.

"You are human enough to fall under our jurisdiction young man." The other man of the group said, having had enough of his conversation with Headmistress Bloodgood. "And we can verify that if we have to, and we came prepared in case something like this should show up." He said, addressing Headmistress Bloodgood.

"Legal authority or not, there is no justification in having Jackson forcibly removed from his enrollment here. There's no immediate danger to him…" she said, waving her arms around to explain to these representatives. The man who had been standing closest to Jackson ripped his headphones from his hands, not listening to Jackson's protests, and grabbing onto Jackson's arm as he guided him out into the hall. Jackson panicked and resorted to attempting to use his limited pyronic abilities while being himself, producing a small flame in his hand. "See…see? I'm not just human." He argued. But the man had an excuse ready it seemed. "There has been evidence to suggest that repeated exposure to monsters can result in humans possessing preternatural abilities of their own." He said, becoming more forceful in his dragging Jackson out of the classroom.

"And as for there being no danger for him here, we've done our research. Not only has there been a history of repeated bullying, incidents where he has been exposed to potentially toxic substances to him and having to face attacks from the other students has also occurred." The woman said to Headmistress Bloodgood as she and her other partner joined them in the front of the classroom.

"All of those were resolved in a methodical and efficient manner. And the last incident was the result of a curse placed on all students that mentally impaired their judgments and actions so you cannot use that as an example." Headmistress Bloodgood argued back to them. "I have made extensive efforts to keep a safe environment for all students, especially Jackson." she argued, watching as Jackson tried to release himself from the grip of the two men. "And take your hands off of him like that. You can't treat him like that." She argued, attempting to intervene.

Frankie and the others remained where they were stunned, especially Heath. But he overcame his shock to race forward into the conflict. "Hey! Leave my cousin alone!" he said, trying to pry their hand off of Jackson's arms without letting his flame loose.

"Control your students!" the woman bellowed to Headmistress Bloodgood. Faced with the legal ramifications, she was forced to intervene and gently get Heath to stop fighting with the other men. Holding onto Heath, she whistled for Nightmare to come to her. They could hear a neighing from out in the hallway before the horse came in and blocked the door from anyone entering or leaving, flames being emitted from her nostrils. The men realized that it wouldn't do them any good to further struggle with Jackson and released their hold, Jackson stumbled back from them. Heath broke out of Headmistress Bloodgood's hold to stand beside his cousin who was catching his breath from his struggles. Frankie finally got up from her seat too, coming to stand on Jackson's other side and holding onto his hand with her own. Their friends also moved to get closer to Jackson as though they could intimidate the three representatives by standing behind him.

"Very well. We will take this to the courts. But we do have permission to verify that this student is genuinely human during this visit." The woman said, her face showing her frustration at Headmistress Bloodgood's strategy. She pulled out a folded stack of papers from her briefcase and handed it to Headmistress Bloodgood to read. "It's signed by a judge and everything else you might call for. So we have every right to properly examine him." She said as the headmistress flipped through the pages.

"What?!" Jackson shouted again, visibly shrinking away from them again and into the support from his friends, Frankie's grip tightening on him. The woman only briefly spared him a glance before returning to speaking with Headmistress Bloodgood. "And if you or he should refuse, then it automatically pushes this to the higher court." She said, a smug look on her face. Headmistress Bloodgood looked over to Jackson, sighing as she nodded in confirmation of what they had been told.

"Then let's head over to your nurse's office and we'll get this over with." One of the men said, eyeing Nightmare's continued stance in front of the door. Jackson looked panicked and tried to back away again, but Headmistress Bloodgood did her best to give him a comforting look.

"I'll be coming too Jackson. I may not be allowed into the room with them…" she said, jaw clenching as she gripped the papers tighter, "…but I won't be very far." She said encouragingly. Jackson gulped at what was waiting for him but gave a tiny nod, Headmistress Bloodgood giving a whistle for Nightmare to remove herself from the doorway. "Give him a moment, please." She said to the representatives. "We will meet you there shortly." She said, turning back to Jackson to let them know that she was not leaving any room for bargaining with her at this point. The men reluctantly left but they could see the woman remaining in the hallway to make sure that they wouldn't just try to bolt.

"Jackson. It'll be okay." Headmistress Bloodgood said, seeing how he appeared to be on the verge of hyperventilating. "Just breathe Jackson." She said, comfortingly placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Can we come too? Just to be nearby?" Frankie asked, not willing to let him out of her sights with the threat of having him taken away still very much present. Headmistress Bloodgood sighed. "I can't let anyone too close, not even you Heath." She said, before giving them a cunning look. "But I see no reason why you can't decide to just stay in the room on the other side of the wall…" she suggested, knowing that although they wouldn't be able to really hear much of anything, they could still be close by to be with him as soon as he was released. They nodded and Jackson let Headmistress Bloodgood guide him down to the nurse's office.

As soon as they were far enough away, Frankie, Heath, and the others trailed after them carefully. They watched as Jackson entered into the nurse's office, the school's nurses forced to stand out in the hallway with their headmistress while they waited. She shot the group a look and gave a little nod, letting them know to enter the nearby lounge room, cramming themselves inside. "What are they supposed to be doing to him?" Clawdeen asked, chewing her lip at the thought of what was going on. Ghoulia moaned a response that they were likely conducting a typical physical on him to determine whether or not he was indeed 'human enough' as that one representative said. Clawd and Frankie pressed their ears against the wall trying to listen to what was being said, but she could only hear muffled voices.

"Isn't there anyway for us to try and listen in?" Frankie asked, eyes still watery from the chaos that had gone down in the classroom. Ghoulia tapped her chin before shrugging a little, groaning at her inability to help out her friends. Gil, however, seemed to have had an idea and began opening the few cabinets that were in the room.

"What are you looking for?" Lagoona asked as she watched him rummage around. He turned back to briefly address his friends. "A glass of some kind. You know, to hold against the wall. It might not make much of a difference but it's worth a shot." He said, continuing to look. Spotting one, he grabbed it and handed it over to Clawd who put it up to the wall and listened.

"Hey! It's working. I can make out more of what they're saying." The werewolf said, pausing to listen. "Jackson isn't making this easy for them…" he said, all of them smiling at their friend's stubbornness and willpower despite the situation and terror he had been in before. "They keep telling him to hold still…oh, now they're saying that he's going to make their examination results off if he keeps holding his breath while they check him out" He said , chuckling.

"I just don't get why they'd decide to check things out now." Heath said, pacing. "I mean, he's been going here for a while now." He said, his hair beginning to ignite as he walked without him apparently being aware of it. Abbey rushed to douse the flames that had leapt onto the cushions for one of the chairs, poking at her boyfriend to get him to pay more attention.

"Is not your fault Heath." She said, pulling him into her embrace and letting him drop his head onto her shoulder. "Jackson is smart enough to keep them from taking him away today." She said, but the attention was back onto Clawd as he made a face.

"What?" Frankie frantically asked, eyes wide since she had also heard without the glass Jackson's grunt of pain. She could only imagine what they had decided to subject him to. Clawd put a finger to his lips to ask her to keep quiet. "It sounds like they've had enough of Jackson's uncooperative nature. He's telling them not to hold him down like that 'cuz it's hurting him." He said, Frankie gaping and covering her mouth.

"If Jackson tells them that they were rough with him in court, then maybe they can be discredited." Cleo said, crossing her arms and letting Deuce pull her against him as he tried to keep up his tough appearance in his worry for his best friend. "Can you tell what they're saying now?" She asked Clawd.

"They're telling him to stay quiet…they're…listening to his breathing and his heartbeat now." He said, keeping up his position against the wall. "He's actually not saying anything right now." He said as he listened.

"They probably covered his mouth." Clawdeen said from her seat. "I wonder how much longer they plan on doing this. They must have looked him over front, back, up and down now." She said, crossing her legs as she leaned back into her chair. Draculaura nodded in agreement. "Unless they're determined to run every test they know on him to make their case seem all the more solid. But they can't overlook Holt." She said, sighing at this predicament.

"Um…speaking of him. I think Jackson's up and moving around again." Clawd said, but the others could tell that there was a commotion going on in the room without the aid of the glass. A yell was heard that they had come to recognize as Jackson's transformation into Holt, each of them unsure of what that might mean for their friend's situation.

"What're they saying now?" Frankie asked, wringing her hands in her nervousness. Lagoona stood over by the door to peek out into the hallway, letting the others know that Headmistress Bloodgood was knocking on the door too.

"Holt's being Holt and not wanting to do anything they say…he's asking for his pants back but that he doesn't need them to leave if they're being stingy with his clothes." Clawd said, snickering a little. "Uh oh…" he said. The others could hear Holt loud and clear telling them to quit manhandling him, repeating his performance of his arrest on Halloween. Crashes were heard as he tossed things around at the representatives, rivaling Clawd and Clawdeen with the growls he was letting out. But just as quickly as the noise came about, it was silenced as they heard what sounded like some sort of electrical device. "Oh man…"Clawd said, eyes wide. "I think they used a taser on him!" he said, pulling away from the wall.

"Oh my Ra!" Cleo said as the others gasped, Deuce's grip on her shoulder tightening in his anger. "They can't do that!" she said but it would seep apparent that they obviously felt they could and did.

"He's moaning but still awake. And Holt…but they're struggling to pull him back up onto one of the beds." Clawd said, having returned to listening as Frankie's bottom lip quivered and looked about to cry. Lagoona sat beside her to comfort her friends, Abbey holding onto Heath and freezing his feet to the floor to keep him from just storming into the room. "It sounds like they're planning on doing everything again with Holt out…It could be a while." Clawd said, handing the cup to his sister to take over as he took a seat.

As Clawd had said, it was another twenty minutes until the representatives felt that they'd had enough information to leave with, finally allowing others into the office. Headmistress Bloodgood looked as though she would have liked to enter, but instead chose to make sure that the representatives left the premises as quickly as possible. Heath and Frankie bolted inside to see Holt lying on one of the table in only his underwear. "Holy smokes!" Heath said, rushing over to help his cousin get his pants back on. Holt gave them a tiny smile, looking far more subdued than he normally would have been. Frankie returned the smile, standing back so Heath could help his cousin dress. She could see some marks on his back from where they must have hit him to keep him still as he pulled his shirt back on. Heath offered Holt his jacket but was surprised when Holt shook his head. "Nah…I ain't up for more layers just yet." he said, easing himself off of the bed, "That was rough".

"What did they do to you?" Frankie said as she walked over to him to help him walk out. Holt gave a humorless laugh. "What didn't they do? Yo! They poked and prodded me everywhere and I didn't even get their number" He said, trying to joke a little with her. "Ugh…I tried to grab my pants and tell them that I wasn't into playing doctor today when they decided to jump on me. All they did was make me mad and so I planned on just leavin', tossin' their stuff out of my way when they hit me in the back with somethin'…" he said, rolling his shoulders. "Man…that knocked me off my feet faster than a good beat…gah!" he said. "I wasn't able to do too much on my own after that and they did whatever it was they thought they needed to do." He said, sitting down in the lounge area where the rest of their friends had waited for them. "Somebody want to tell me what's going on? Jackson get sick or somethin', 'cuz I don't feel sick."

"No Holt, you and Jackson are perfectly healthy." Frankie answered, rubbing her boyfriend's back comfortingly. He winced as she inadvertently aggravated his sore spot, Frankie apologizing immediately as she did. "But it seems that those people are determined to prove that not only are you 'human enough' in either form for them to have the ability to say where you can and can't go to school, but they're trying to get you out of Monster High." She said. Holt's eyes widened and he stood up, catching himself on the table to steady himself. "What?!" he demanded, stumbling away with the intention of going out into the hallway.

"Dude! Calm down or you're gonna fall flat on your face!" Deuce said, catching his friend. "This definitely won't make things better for you." He argued, trying to guide Holt back into a chair.

"No! I'm takin' care of this now!" Holt seethed. "Nobody can tell me that! I'm taking control of this situation! Get out of my way! Let me go! I'm gonna take care of this!" Holt ranted, his hair flaming up as he flailed his arms to push his friends out of his way. Even when recovering, he still made for a difficult opponent and Frankie was forced to grab his headphones off his head, internally apologizing for having to resort to that. Jackson reappeared in a burst of flame as Holt was mid-swing toward Clawd. He stumbled and the werewolf caught him before he fell to the floor.

"Whoa…"Jackson breathed out, wincing as Clawd eased him back up with a hand on his back. "Ow…ow…"he said, walking back over to the table to sit down, placing his head onto the table and sighing. "What happened?" he asked, keeping his eyes closed. "Last time I felt like this was when you were out of your mind and tried to fry me." Jackson said to Frankie, who was petting the top of his head comfortingly,

"Well…you're not too far from the truth." Heath said. "Those people tased Holt to get him to stay still for their examination of you two." He explained, Jackson groaning again. "I can't believe I'm saying this – but I hope he did some damage to their stuff first." Jackson said, opening his eyes again to look at his cousin. Heath seemed surprised to hear that from his cousin while he was Jackson, but gave a laugh. "Yeah, he definitely did. I think one of the guys has a nice new shiner too." he said, gaining a smile from Jackson.

"He totally deserved it too." the voice of their headmistress startled the group as their attention had been solely on their friend. Jackson lifted his head off of the table to talk with his headmistress, but she held up a hand to stave off the siege of questions that was sure to assault her. "They've left with their findings. They said that Holt, although with more 'trace symptoms' of your mother's fire elemental heritage, was still physically human according to technical measurements and that they would be able to take this to their superiors and make a case for your enrollment elsewhere."

"What? How could they think that? I can even produce a little flame" Jackson said, calling a miniscule flame to his hand. "That shouldn't matter anyway. I have every right to go here if I want." He said, getting more and more agitated as his friends were too. Their headmistress nodded her head before taking it off of her shoulders to hold. "I know that. Believe me when I say this institution will put up a heavy fight in its defense Jackson. But you should prepare yourself. They have an alternative school in mind already for humans with 'modified or enhanced abilities' that they seem to think you qualify for." She said, voice dripping with sarcasm as she repeated what they said to her. "I have never heard of this school, but in the meantime, be careful. They'll likely try to monitor what goes on around you." She said, Jackson nodding grimly. She sighed before looking at the group fondly. "Why don't you all go home? I won't hold it against you after all the stress from this." She said, the friends nodding along with her suggestion. Frankie let Jackson use her as a support to get up and they all proceeded to leave the lounge, intending to gather their things and head over to one of their houses to just relax as they waited to learn what would happen next.

* * *

At Cleo's house, large enough to comfortably accommodate everyone on their impromptu day off, Franke and Jackson had sat on the floor of one of the movie rooms as they all watched a show. Frankie found herself unable to willfully release her hold on Jackson, fearful that if he was sent away that they might not get to see each other very often – or at all. She rested her head on his chest as he relaxed, letting the familiar sound of his heartbeat soothe her. She didn't want to say anything to him, but she could tell how those people might be able to make their case, as she had told him once before, that his heartbeat didn't sound any different than when he had transformed into Holt except that it was slightly faster. There were other monsters with heartbeats rather than the undead ones like Cleo or Draculaura or even those animated by a charge pulsing through them like her. But she had been right in her opinion that a human heartbeat was different and that must have been why those people did their exam twice.

"Frankie…" Jackson began, nearly nodding off to sleep like some of their friends already had. She made a small sound to acknowledge that she had heard him, but didn't move. "When I have to go…"he said, sounding incredibly saddened.

"You mean if." Frankie said, lifting herself up to sit and talk with him. "You heard Headmistress Bloodgood. She'll fight it, and your parents are definitely going to make things difficult for them too." she argued. But Jackson seemed more pessimistic.

"Frankie…please. When I get sent away, do you think you could still wait for me?" he asked timidly. "I know our relationship is difficult enough as it is without adding distance, but I really do want to try and keep us together." He said, holding his arms out for her to come closer. Frankie obliged and snuggled up against him again, resting her head on his chest as he placed his head on top of hers. She felt him slightly shaking as he must have been trying to hold himself together and she tightened her hold on him as well.

"I'll wait for you Jackson. And we can always call each other and maybe see each other on the weekends if possible." Frankie said, getting worked up herself. The calm heartbeat that she had been falling asleep too was now significantly faster as she held onto her boyfriend.

"And…could you watch Heath too?" Jackson asked, looking over at his sleeping cousin on one of the chairs. "I know Abbey can handle him, but I don't want him to think that this is his fault at all. These people had excuses and explanations ready faster than anybody could have – they were just waiting to use any little things and twist it to suit whatever supposed purpose they think they have." He said.

"I know. Heath's been worried about that since we got back. I'm surprised that he's asleep." Frankie said loud enough for Abbey to pick up on. She sent a small smile over to the two of them on the floor. "Not to worry. Abbey made him special drink. He will sleep like baby yak for another hour." She said. Frankie laughed but Jackson made a small wince.

"You didn't give him too much, did you Abbey?" Jackson asked as Clawd got up to poke their sleeping friend. Heath didn't make a sound or even move in his sleepy state. Clawd laughed as he poked his friend again, Abbey waving his hand away with a look that told him to leave him alone. Heath shifted from the repeated prodding, although not waking up, but easing Jackson's concern for his cousin. Frankie giggled at Heath's position as he curled up to make himself comfortable on the chairs, Abbey sitting closer to her boyfriend to make sure he didn't roll off onto the floor.

Ghoulia moaned over to them too get their attention away from Heath's ability to keep them entertained even while asleep. "What is it Ghoulia?" Cleo asked, nudging her boyfriend awake. Deuce made a few questioning noises before feeling around on his face to make sure his glasses were still on his face so he could actually open his eyes safely. "Yeah Cleo?" he yawned at her. Cleo rolled her eyes but tried to shove him off of her. "I can't get up with you hanging on me Deuce." She said, making her point by continuing to maneuver him off of her. Deuce realized what she meant and shifted over so that she could get up and go over to Ghoulia who had motioned for her to come over.

"Oh! You're trying to find where this other school is supposed to be?" she asked Ghoulia who nodded and returned to typing on her computer. She pulled up the school's webpage, but she could tell that there wasn't much information other than the minimum bits that the school put out. Reporting this to the others, Draculaura, Clawdeen and Lagoona snoozing along with Heath, they all seemed to pick up on how odd that detail was considering how much their school usually had available to browse.

"Maybe it's just because they like to keep things more private? Or maybe 'cuz it supposed to be a boarding school?" Gil whispered so as not to wake Lagoona. "But it does seem fishy that there aren't any pictures of the students even in the halls or something." he said. Jackson sighed and leaned his head back as his friends continued to snoop around for more details. Ghoulia moaned again that she had found that the website had only been put up less than a full year ago. "That could be just because they started the school less than a year ago. It might explain why those representatives were so aggressive in their argument to have me transferred – another student to keep up their reason for their school to be open." He mumbled, hugging Frankie closer to him.

"That's still suspicious though, considering there aren't many details on this webpage. And anybody can make a webpage with shifty information." Clawd said as he looked at the computer that Ghoulia had passed to him. "But maybe we won't have to get too concerned and this whole thing will blow over soon so we can all get back to normal." He said, handing it back to Ghoulia.

"That would be nice but with my luck, I'll be starting a new school within the next week." Jackson said. Frankie whined a little at that thought and sniffled as she buried her face into Jackson's chest. "Let's not talk about that now. Let's just watch the rest of the movie together." Frankie said as Jackson stroked her hair to comfort her.

The others lapsed into silence for a while until Heath woke up bewildered at what had happened, falling out of the chair despite Abbey's best efforts, to land on Jackson and Frankie. "Ompf…Hi Heath" Jackson said as he angled Frankie away from his cousin so at least she wouldn't have to deal with him. "Nice of you to drop by" he said as he and Heath disentangled themselves, waking up the others in the process. Seeing the commotion was nothing more than Heath's typical behavior, they chuckled. "Look, live entertainment" Clawdeen remarked as she stretched to wake up more.

"Sorry Jackson" Heath said. "I can't seem to do anything right for you today" he mumbled pathetically as he sat next to his cousin. Jackson shook his head and patted his hand on Heath's shoulder. "No…none of this is your fault Heath. Except rolling off the chair – that was all you, well, maybe a little bit of Abbey" he said, sending him a smile as Frankie laughed.

Heath seemed slightly more himself but Draculaura's exclamation of how late it had gotten had them all scrambling to wake up fully so that they could head home. Saying their goodbyes', the friends split up to go to their respective homes. "You want a ride too Abbey?" Jackson asked as he, Frankie and Heath got into his car. The yeti shook her head, pointing over to Clawd. He nodded at her as she answered and got in, pulling away and honking the horn to the others. Heath was dropped off first, even though his house was closer to Jackson's than Frankie's. But the elemental knew that his cousin probably wanted some alone time with his girlfriend and didn't say anything, simply saying that he would seem them both the next day.

As Jackson and Frankie pulled up alongside her house, having driven in silence most of the ride, Jackson surprised her by planting a meaningful kiss on her before she got out. "I'm sorry about all of this Frankie. I know it's nobody's fault, but still…I don't know why things have to always get so complicated for us." He said. Frankie nodded, leaning in to give him another kiss. "I know Jackson. But we'll find a way to work all this out. We have to" she said, reluctant to leave the car. "I'll still be here for you, whenever you need me." She said, earning a goofy grin from Jackson as she made herself leave the car. She waved to him as he pulled away, turning around to see that her father had been watching from the window. While she would have nervously smiled at him if she'd been caught being affectionate with her boyfriend, she found that she couldn't do anything to wipe what she was sure was a depressed look off of her face. She walked inside and straight into her father's embrace, letting him know everything that had happened and wishing that things really would remain the same.

* * *

They came to learn that as Jackson predicted, after the end of the week he'd been ordered by the courts to attend the school the representatives had recommended. Luckily Headmistress Bloodgood had achieved a small success the judge deciding that this was only to be for a trial period when another evaluation was done again by a different group of court-appointed evaluators.

"Oh this is so stupid!" Frankie said as she spent the last day Jackson had before moving away for a couple of months. They had decided to just stroll through the park, having one last picnic together by themselves. Heath had been nearly beside himself with guilt despite Jackson's and his parents' insistence that he shouldn't feel that way. "Why do you have to go at all?" she asked, aggressively munching on the snacks Jackson had packed. Even though he was just as upset as she was, he couldn't help but find that he was amused by her antics.

"At least if all goes well, I'll be back before the end of the school year." Jackson said. "Take it easy Frankie or you might choke on that sandwich." He said to her, smirking as she glared at him. He sighed and gently touched her hand. "Trust me Frankie. I'm not looking forward to it either. I'd rather not dwell on it until I have to leave in…three hours. Wow. The time seemed to just fly by." He said, looking disappointed.

"I know, I know." Frankie said as they began to clear up their stuff. "But I'm still so mad about it. I just don't understand why you can't call me either. It's just not fair." She said, tearing up. Jackson pulled her into a tight hug as he too was finding it harder to not just break down himself. "I'll do everything I can to contact you – Holt will too if they let him out. Just…don't run off with some other guy while I'm doing my time in that jail." He joked with her as they walked back to the car, getting inside to head home. It seemed to work as Frankie gave a tiny laugh. As much as they wanted to say two months' worth of things to each other, they couldn't seem to find the right words, riding in silence again as they returned back to Jackson's house. Heath and the others had set up a small going-away party that they were trying to return to on time. The next couple of hours were bittersweet as everyone talked with Jackson until he triggered Holt so that Holt could also say goodbye. He predictably wasn't as calm as Jackson was in refusing to accept what had happened, but his parents and Frankie were able to placate him enough so that the party didn't spiral out of hand. But eventually, the time came for Holt to leave so he let Jackson take over from there.

Frankie and the others waved goodbye as Jackson and his parents drove him to the bus station so he could catch a ride from one of the school's teachers once the bus had reached as far as it would go. He wasn't going too far, but this was the method the school required according to the representatives in court. Jackson and the others had thought it was odd, but there wasn't anything they could really do at that point.

"He'll be back before we know it" Clawdeen said to Frankie as she tried to console him. Frankie sighed again as she nodded, unable to help but feel like there was something seriously wrong. She had said as much to her parents and her friends, but she couldn't shake it off as just her nervousness.

* * *

Jackson stood in the bus parking lot awkwardly looking around after the bus had finally pulled in. He'd had a hard time leaving, and his mother seemed especially more clingy. The bus ride alone had been especially bad since the person seated next to him had insisted on turning on his speakers once they were well on their way on the road.

Holt had apparently let his displeasure be known and the driver had threatened them all with pulling over to end the trip prematurely if he had to in order to keep Holt from rampaging. But luckily Holt seemed to have had enough and smashed the speakers before taking off his headphones to let Jackson deal with their dilemma again on his own. Jackson was still grimacing at the thought of all of Holt's behavior, but was growing worried as it appeared that his ride was not on time. But as he stood alone in empty lot, he saw a white van approaching him. It stopped and the woman from the trio that had visited the school got out to help him put his bags in the back. She said very little other than brief instructions, not that Jackson was very keen on striking up a conversation with her either.

It took another hour for them to pull up to a building that Jackson was_fairly_ sure must have been an actual prison at one point, although he held off making the jump to _completely_ certain for his own sanity. But it was out of the way from just about any of the buildings they had passed on the way there, situated as it was in the middle of a field and coming with its own set of barbed fencing that Jackson looked at with concern.

Pulling up, he got out and made to grab his luggage, but the woman and the driver prevented him from taking inside. "You won't be needing any of that." The driver spoke to him in a deep voice. Jackson had to lean back to make eye contact with the giant of a man. "Um…I'm pretty sure that I do." He tried to argue with him, but the man simply got more into Jackson's personal space and forced him to have to back into the open front doors where the woman stood waiting. The driver then shut the doors once Jackson was inside, leaving him to turn to the woman with a questioning look on his face.

"This isn't a school, is it?" He asked, his anger coming to the surface as he put everything together. She smiled sweetly at him as she motioned for him to follow her down the hallway. "Of course it is dear." She said to him, Jackson flinching at the tone she used with him after having experienced just how fake it really was. "But this is where you will learn what you really need to know and you'll be thanking us soon." She said, opening up a door to reveal his modest living arrangements. "This is everything you will need and we will provide with everything else you can ever think of needing. But I must ask for your phone now." She said, extending her hand for his to place it in.

"What? You can't take my phone." He said to her, alarmed at what that could mean. Not only would he be more or less a prisoner with no connection to the outside world, but Holt probably would not be given any chance to let himself out. Typically Jackson wouldn't have minded prolonged periods without Holt's appearances to set him back in terms of dignity, but two months of that and he was sure he was going to go as mad as what his great-grandfather had briefly descended into when he'd considered not letting his Hyde side out anymore.

"Yes I can and I am." She said, gesturing with her hand for him to stop wasting time and give it to her. "There's hardly enough of a signal out here anyway for it to send out a call." She said as Jackson reluctantly handed it over to her. "And we can't let that other version of you out to mess around with our careful construction of things. We can help you repress those monstrous characteristics too." she said as she pressed a few buttons on the phone to turn it off, pocketing it.

"Holt isn't capable of being repressed. Bad things happen when he's not let out in a while and I won't be held responsible if I do something because you've driven me mad." Jackson said, breathing heavily at what was happening. "We're two halves. If you get rid of one, the other just won't be right. It took me a while to learn that, but I have to deal with having that side of me and ignoring him won't help." Jackson said, trying to get her to understand what he was saying to him.

"In only a short time, you'll come to understand that this is all for your own good." She smiled at him again, speaking to him as though he was no more than a small child. "You will learn, be glad to learn, and want to follow what you learn because you will understand that this is the right way." She said, creeping Jackson out even more as he realized that she completely believed everything that she was telling him. "Sleep well and we'll see you in the kitchen at the end of the hall at seven." She said, shutting the door and locking it, the lights turning out after a minute.

Jackson pounded on the door, shouting for her to come back and let him out. He tired himself out and despite his misgivings, found himself succumbing to sleep as he silently let a few tears slip out. The night passed quickly and at seven his door was unlocked and he was roughly shaken awake and dragged out into the hall by the same man who had driven him there the previous night. Jackson walked slowly toward where the woman had said the kitchen was and found himself with two other 'students'. A boy about his age with short reddish brown hair, green eyes and pale skin sat at the table and gave him the briefest of glances as he walked in. The other was a girl probably a little older than him with shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes with more of a tanned complexion than either of the boys. She however didn't spare him a glance as he sat down to have the cereal and toast provided to him. Once the two men that Jackson hadn't seen yet were out of the room, the boy immediately started to give Jackson his undivided attention.

"Hey. I heard them bring you in last night. I'm Malcom O'Brian. I've been here for almost a full month. They're trying to brainwash us into betraying our monster family and friends." He blurted out to him in a rushed whisper. "That's Thera Harper. She's been here nearly four months. She's still holding her own but has a harder time now I think." He said, taking a bite of his cereal. "Finish up – they take it away in ten minutes even if you're not done."

Jackson took his advice and began to scarf down his food and drink. "Thanks. I'm Jackson Jekyll. If I'm lucky – and I can't believe I'm saying this – if I'm lucky, you might get to meet Holt Hyde." He said, taking a sip from his glass of water.

"No way. Like from the story?" Malcom said, eyes widening. Jackson nodded. "Yeah. You're the first to actually pay attention to that." He said, finding it odd now that his monster friends hadn't picked up on that, not that he had given it much thought other than the odd coincidence that he shared the same last name. Of course, that was before he'd been informed that he shared more than just a name too.

"Well, that's the kind of education we're getting here." Malcom said, having finished with his breakfast already. "And you better stash those clothes somewhere good if you want to keep them once you get their latest fashion." He said, gesturing to the simple getup that he and Thera were dressed in. Jackson's bright colors definitely stood out and he again nodded to Malcom.

"They will take them away anyway." Thera said, breaking her silence. "Nothing of our past seems to be able to get through." She said with a depressed tone. "Not even my mom can find me…"

Jackson looked to Malcom when it seemed that Thera was done talking. "Her mother's a harpy. Adopted Thera as a little baby – she's all human but picked up a few things from her mom's efforts in raising her. Don't know if she has a dad; she hasn't told me" He said. "My dad's human but my mom's a leprechaun, hence the stereotypical appearance minus the pointy ears." He said, gesturing to himself and earning a small smile from Jackson.

"They're really looking for humans with either connections like Thera, or actual mixed heritage." Malcom said. "I know I talk too much but I can't help it – you should hear my mom prattle on and on once you get her going." He laughed, a far off look in his eye as he thought about the family he was missing.

"Guess they got both with me." Jackson grumbled. "Dad's the one who passed on the alter ego, but mom's a fire elemental." He said, producing a tiny flame to prove his point. "I don't look it like this, but I'm more complicated than what that story you've read is like."

Malcom had a giddy look on his face. "Oh, we could get up to something with that." He said, rubbing his hands together as he plotted. "Leprechauns may not be as good as the other sidhe or the fay, but mom's taught me a few handy tricks….like how to work my way around a charm or two." He said, still smiling. Jackson looked at him in confusion but Thera decided to rejoin the conversation. "They may not be fans of monstrous creatures, but they have no qualms about using stolen magical items. I think the leader sent her daughter into your school once…how did that go? I'm guessing not very well." Thera smirked, displaying what was definitely a harpy-like trait with the look in her eyes.

Jackson shook his head. "She the one who impersonated a witch?" he asked, Thera nodding. "Well she cast that spell alright, but she must not have known that we have a genie at our school immune to the smoke magic that she used. It took a while – and several attempts by my friends to kill me while they were out of their minds trying to act out those stories you've been reading – but we were able to get things back to normal." Jackson said, finishing up his meal. They only had a couple more minutes to themselves it seemed.

"That must be how she spotted you or heard your name to tell her mother to check it out." Thera said nodding. "They were just finishing their modifications on that stone when I got here. I've been thinking about all the possibilities for how it could have backfired…it's what kept me from going completely mad. And Malcom." She said. Malcolm nodded. "She was nearly out of it completely by the time I got here. I can't do much on my own without knowing all the details, but I think I may have tweaked the charm they've been using on us enough for her to come to her senses again." He said, making a so-so motion with his hand. "I just have to pretend that it's working on me or else they may decide to use another piece from their arsenal…" he said, slumping a little.

Jackson's eyes widened as he heard that. "And I suppose that charm starts to have more strength and power after two months?" he said, Malcom giving him a curious look.

"I read that the Jekylls were smart but I didn't know you were that good." He said as he nodded. Jackson just shook his head. "They had to go to court to trick my parents into sending me here. My headmistress fought them all the way to getting a temporary removal for two months in their 'alternative school'. Clearly they either plan on me being under their sway by then or enough to have me request that I stay here." He said gloomily. Malcom gave him a wide-eyed look that Jackson meant to stop talking, the woman he'd come to learn as the leader of the group entering with another woman, this one a smaller brunette to her taller blond physique.

"I see that you've become acquainted with your fellow students Jackson. Follow me and I'll get you your uniform and then we can begin your classes." She said, Jackson glaring at her the entire time. "Come on now. This is for your own good. But if you want to make things difficult, Horace can always make the suggestion for me." She said, waving with her hand and the driver stepped into the room. Jackson sighed before getting up and following the woman on his own.

He had been dressed quickly and brought to a room where Malcom and Thera were already being tutored. Jackson spend the rest of the morning at his desk until they were brought back to the kitchen and given lunch and a few minutes outside, two men watching them from afar.

"I'm sorry to tell you what's coming next, but they're going to hit you with that charm within the next couple of hours." Malcom whispered to Jackson as he and Thera tossed a ball around in the grass. Jackson sighed again and nodded. "You can't really fake a first-time reaction to it. But I'll find you after dinner when they lock us in the living room for their version of evening entertainment and try to ease the effects then. I'll be able to…not block…but, filter the effects from now on. If they use the same charm." He said. Jackson shot him an unamused look that Malcom returned with a sheepish smile. "Hey, I told you I'm not an expert" he defended himself, Thera making a small noise that they thought might have been a giggle at one point.

Jackson watched her movements carefully, concerned by the fact that she had been under the charm's complete influence for a month before Malcom had arrived to help her out. She seemed to still be affected by it, but he was cautious in saying too much to her since he didn't know the extent of her mental state. Malcom watched him as he eyed her, motioning with his head that he was going to throw the ball just a little farther so she would have to go out of hearing range. Jackson gave a slight nod and Malcom threw the ball, Thera responding predictably.

"I know what you're thinking about trusting her. I do." He said to Jackson. "But we've been with each other practically all day for a month now. I trust her." He said with a goofy grin on his face. Jackson looked at him for a moment before responding. "No…you _like_ her. That's why you trust her." He said, causing the other boy to blush.

"That has nothing to do with it. I'm telling you to take my word for it." Malcom said, starting to get annoyed. Jackson sighed, realizing that like his alter ego, Malcom may have some difficulty in the anger management department. Leprechauns were known to take offense quickly even if the perceived slight was nothing more than ignorance on the other party's behalf. "I understand. Besides, we have to trust each other." Jackson said as Thera returned with the ball and tossed it at him. He caught it and tossed it to Malcom who seemed less irritated, but the red remained on his face for a few minutes longer. Jackson couldn't help but think of his friends at that moment. He hoped they might be able to find a way to contact them. Never did he seem to need their help as much as now.

* * *

"Ugh…it's been five weeks already…"Frankie moaned at lunch to her friends. She and Heath seemed to have had the most difficult time, although Deuce also made it obvious that he was missing his friend. The fact that they couldn't even contact him with a phone call made the separation all the more difficult.

"We know Frankie. Think of it as…three more weeks to go and then Jackson should be back." Draculaura tried to encourage, waving at Clawd as he walked past to sit at a table with Deuce, Heath and Gil. Even Manny was doing his best to brighten Heath's mood, but the elemental remained in a depressed funk as he continued to be convinced that his cousin's departure was his fault.

"That doesn't make me feel better." Frankie said. "I just wish I could talk to him, if only for a few minutes. I spoke to his parents the other day when I saw them at the market and they said Jackson's letters to them weren't like his usual writing – kind of distant and vague and all about how he was making such progress with his education there." she said, picking at her food.

"Maybe he really is fine Frankie." Lagoona said. "He does like to be engrossed in his books after all." She said, rubbing a hand comfortingly on Frankie's back as she sat next to her.

"But that's just it…if those letters are really his writing, what if he decides to actually stay?" Frankie worried, her bottom lip trembling a little. Cleo huffed and crossed her arms, getting tired of the same conversation at lunch for over a month. "Jackson asked you to wait for him. He wouldn't have done that if he didn't plan on coming back." She said, Frankie looking like she was seriously weighing Cleo's words. "But…if you're that worried…how about a road trip this weekend?" she suggested, giving Frankie a look that usually meant she was scheming something. At Frankie's questioning look, she smiled and continued.

"Deuce has been moping too so I think that if we just _happen_ to be out that way over the weekend, then there shouldn't be any harm in a quick hello…even from afar." She said, taking a sip of her drink as she waited for her friends to process what she said. Frankie looked torn between jumping up and down in agreement or outright denying the idea to not jeopardize Jackson's chances of coming back in three weeks.

"So you and Deuce were just gonna head over to that school?" Clawdeen asked disbelievingly. "Just like that? Your parents didn't say anything?" she questioned her friend, concerned that Cleo was setting Frankie up to take the blame. Cleo rolled her eyes before turning to address the werewolf. "Daddy is fine with a little girl time – that's why I'm inviting Frankie – and he thinks we're going hiking." She said.

"But you hate hiking. How'd you convince him of that?" Draculaura asked, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. "Oh…you told him one of us likes to hike and Deuce was going to drive us there…" she said after a second of thinking things over.

"Heath should go too" Abbey said pointedly, indicating Heath's position at the guys' table as he leaned his head onto one arm, slumping at the table and not eating as vigorously as his appetite usually called for. "I would come too, but if Frankie goes, may not be having enough room in car." She said, nodding her head with this plan.

"Heath shouldn't go. He'd let it slip that we we're going to see his cousin before we left and then we'd really get in trouble." Cleo said. "The address on the website has the school about four hours away. We'll be there and back within a day." Cleo said.

"That's not fair to him Cleo. He's really hurtin' over this." Clawdeen said. "He may not have been buddy-buddy with him when he first got here, but he's so down about this he hasn't set fire to the school once."

"Um…did you tell Deuce not to tell Heath about your plan?" Lagoona asked as she watched the boys, seeing how something the gorgon had said to Heath seemed to get the other's undivided attention. Cleo shook her head and looked over, huffing as she reached the same conclusion as Lagoona did. "Well, that settles that question." The sea monster chuckled at Cleo's displeased look.

"Alright. We're heading out around eight tomorrow so be ready." Cleo said, watching as Heath set off the sprinklers. "Apparently with Heath joining us too." she said as they all got up to clean up their things and finish up their Friday.

The others could tell that Frankie seemed as though she couldn't focus on anything else for the rest of the day, although they didn't see much of a difference in Heath's behavior as he anxiously waited for the day to end. When the bell finally rang, Heath sprinted over to join Cleo, Deuce and Frankie and they walked out.

"You're still definitely going, right?" he asked, his face showing how much he hoped that he hadn't done something to have his friends decide otherwise. "You won't even know I'm there." he said, trying to appeal to Cleo. The mummy just rolled her eyes, finding it hard to not notice him, especially should he decide to let loose his flames. But she could see how much he wanted to go, her boyfriend sending her a look to persuade her. "We're fine with you coming Heath. But we're leaving at eight so don't be late." She said, pointing a finger at him as he nodded vigorously, his smile wide. Frankie giggled as his response made him look like his cousin would have whenever it was him and not Holt receiving an invitation to anything. Heath waved before taking off to catch his bus home, the others also saying their goodbyes.

The next morning couldn't come quick enough for Frankie, having just barely gotten permission to go out with her friends for the whole day from her parents. As soon as Deuce's car pulled up, she was out the door and entering the car with only a brief goodbye to her parents. Heath was already in the car when she got in, just as anxious as her, and they began their trip. Cleo had taken the role of navigator, although using something Ghoulia had made for her rather than paper maps. But she and Heath were continuously arguing over how to interpret the directions that Frankie had to take over the role, Deuce sighing as he drove. Neither of them really wanted to take any breaks but it became necessary after a while as they stopped to eat and to let themselves stretch and get some distance from each other for a few minutes. But eventually they did make it to where the school was supposed to be located.

"Are you sure we didn't take a wrong turn or got off the wrong exit Frankie?" Deuce said as he stopped the car in front of an old, abandoned looking brick building. It could have been a school at one time, but it looked as though a fire had done some damage to it a while ago. "This can't be right." He said, turning off the car to get out and look around. The others followed, unsure of what to make of things.

Cleo pulled out her phone to pull up the school's address again, walking over to compare the GPS that Frankie was holding. "No…according to this, we're at the exact spot the school is supposed to be." Cleo said as she and Frankie fiddled around with their devices just to be sure.

Heath was just as frustrated and began to walk toward the building. "Dude. That building doesn't look safe to go near." Deuce said, relieved when Heath stopped walking. But they were all surprised when their friend suddenly shot a large burst of flame at the building, repeating that a few times until he had succeeded in collapsing a portion of the second floor.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Deuce shouted, rushing over to grab his friend by the shoulder and reign him in. "That's not helping and we don't need you getting crushed by a falling building." He said, dragging his friend away and back toward the car. Heath was breathing heavily after that, but took a moment to catch his breath.

"Sorry. I needed to do that. But now we know for sure that nobody's here." Heath said to his friends. Cleo still was looking annoyed with him. "What? You thought maybe they were hiding from us?!" she shouted to him, making him wince.

"But maybe that's exactly what they're doing." Frankie interjected before the conversation got heated, and not just because of Heath. "Look – they've obviously created a fake webpage to make it look like they're any other school. But clearly they're not here so they must have taken Jackson somewhere else." She said, the alarm present on her face. "They've kidnapped him. No…worse – we handed him over to them!" she said, her and Cleo gasping.

"We better call his parents and let them know. Maybe we can have the police officers we met at that Halloween dance help us out." Deuce said, agitated over the situation, his snakes reflecting his mood. Cleo nodded and called Ghoulia on her phone. Luckily their friend answered right away and Cleo put her on speaker phone so everyone could talk. Ghoulia agreed to do what she could on her end in tracing where the website had been set up from or possibly tracking Jackson's phone. Heath was already calling his parents so that they could explain things to Jackson's and alert the police.

"So now what do we do? Just wait around, go home…what?" Frankie said, leaning up against the side of the car. "Ghoulia said she would send us any information she had as she got it, but what about looking for the nearest bus terminal to see if anyone saw him or going to the police around here?" she suggested, trying to come up with ideas for them to follow. Not having anything else to suggest, the other three just nodded and got back inside the car.

"I can't believe it took this long for us to do something." Heath said as he sat next to Frankie in the back who was searching on her device for the nearest police station. She nodded, feeling guilty herself. "I know. But let's just focus on what we can do now." She said. "We'll go to the police station first and then the bus terminal. We'll find him." She said, laying out a plan for them to follow. She and the others were determined to find out what was going on and to get their friend back at all costs.

* * *

Jackson felt like his head was going to split apart from the headache that had been building up since the third week of him being at this brainwashing center. He could feel that Holt was trying to get through to him, to let him out, and it was making everything painful for Jackson who was also fighting the effects of the charm. Malcom had kept to his word and was helping him to not succumb to its influence, but he felt as though much longer and he might go mad.

"You're not looking so hot right now." Malcom said to him as they sat reading some more of the materials they were supposed to be memorizing. Jackson winced as he looked up, noticing the others looking at him oddly.

"I've told you…my alter ego can't be contained for so long without starting to bleed through to _my_ personality." He mumbled softly. "I don't know how much longer before Holt's characteristics mesh with mine – I'm already starting to hear bits and pieces of his thoughts and it's driving me insane." He said, rubbing at his temples with his hands.

"Don't let them know you need medical attention unless you're absolutely dying or something." Thera warned. "They tend to want to monitor everything and it's not the most…pleasant…of situations." She said, likely talking from experience.

"I may not be able to hide it for much longer." Jackson said, doing his best to look like he was just reading when one of the men supervising them began to pay attention more to their conversation. The reading material had long since been abandoned, flipping pages now and then to appear as though doing the work, and Jackson tried to breathe normally as another shot of pain ran across his forehead.

"You. Up!" The man barked out, much too loudly for Jackson who winced again. He sighed and slowly started to stand up, but the man walked over to lift him up. "What's wrong with you?" he said as Jackson stood before him.

"Nothing sir. Just a headache." Jackson said, hoping that his answer would be suitable enough for him to be left alone. The man eyed Jackson as he stood there before pushing him back down in his seat and leaving the room.

"Uh oh." Thera said. "I warned you." She said, Jackson abandoning all pretext now and holding his head. He could swear he heard Holt commenting to him about something to do with darkness and confinement. It was different from the few snippets he'd been overhearing from his other consciousness about music or Frankie. But with the increasing use of the charm on them, no doubt as these people were getting closer to the two month mark and their next plan, Jackson often found himself questioning whether or not he was just making up those thoughts to fill the silences that would come after he was locked in his room.

The man who'd noticed Jackson's dilemma returned with the brunette girl he'd seen on the first day and another man. The woman came over and gently touched Jackson's forehead. He had been expecting her to be as rough as most of the others in the building, but she seemed to make an effort to appear comforting. Her hands were cold and he found himself sighing as she felt for his temperature.

"You were right. He should come with me." She said as Jackson opened his eyes again, finding her scrutinizing him. "He may say he only has a headache, but he feels warmer than usual too." she said, stepping back as the two men grabbed Jackson by his arms to maneuver him. Malcom shot him a sympathetic look as Jackson was made to follow the other woman which he recognized now as their doctor. They went to the second floor and Jackson was deposited on a bed in what was clearly her working area. He looked around to find that Thera hadn't been kidding when he saw the different kinds of monitors situated around the room. He sighed and let his head drop as he sat on the bed, not feeling up to doing anything else.

"You're different from the others." She said as she shut the door with the two men standing outside should she call for them. "Both of them thought coming to me would get them a day off and made any excuse to see me…they were right too." she said, causing Jackson to look at her curiously.

"Thera said…" he started to say, but thought better against continuing in case he may say something that would affect her. The woman nodded. "I know. But that was when our leader had demanded to sit in on my treatment of her when she contracted an illness from the use of one of their magical weapons." She said, beginning to look over Jackson more fully now that he was only with her. She shined a light in his eyes and he winced, gasping at the pain the light caused him.

"Your eyes don't normally have flecks of red in them if I remember the recordings from their exam of you at your school." she said. "But they're definitely there today." She said, feeling his throat before indicating for him to lie down.

"That's most likely from your alter ego. He seems to be trying to make an appearance." She spoke to him, waiting for him to contradict her on whatever she was saying. "But you've developed a fever too." she continued, Jackson nodding as he closed his eyes. He felt her using her stethoscope on him, doing as she asked while she examined him in a way that the others hadn't. But as much as she seemed more sympathetic to him, she was still working where she was and so he opted not to say anything. "Alright, you can keep lying there for now." She said as she finished up, Jackson not moving from where he was lying. He heard the door open and cracked his eyes open to see who had entered. One of the men was standing next to the doctor as she told him he would need to stay with her the rest of the day and possibly tomorrow. He nodded, looking back over at Jackson before leaving.

"You don't say as much as Malcom. He never shuts up in here." She smiled at him. "I know you don't trust me, and are smart enough to be more careful with what you say around us…but I _am_ here to keep you healthy." She said to him, pulling a blanket out of a closet and draping it over him.

"Then let Holt out." He mumbled to her. "He's going to drive me mad." He whined, looking fully at her face as he spoke. She sympathetically smiled at him. "You know I can't do that." She said, Jackson turning his head away from her.

"I would have thought you'd prefer to keep him away." She said, going back to her cabinets as she prepared medication for him. Jackson gave a small chuckle. "Normally I don't mind. But this is too long and it could kill us both." He said, emphasizing the severity of what they were doing. "Or didn't you read the end of my story?" he smirked at her.

"Oh, I did. Yet, your existence proves that your great-grandfather survived long enough to have a kid to pass this trait onto…but I see what you're saying." She said. "But hopefully by the end of this month, that problem will be remedied." She smiled to him again, affirming for Jackson that although nicer than the others, she believed in what they were doing too.

A shout was heard down the hall and the doctor paused in what she was doing. "Oh…they've probably burnt themselves again. I told them to use gloves when handling those chemicals." She muttered as she exited the room to go see what was happening. Jackson was left to think about what she had said before realizing that there must have been some sort of explosive material that they were using to build some nasty thing to use on possibly his own friends and family.

He thought about how he might be able to get over to where those things were and possibly make a way out when he recognized his ringtone. Sitting up quickly, his head pounding, he followed the sound to the area of the room that had glass walls beside its door. Inside he could see what looked like their technical equipment laid out, no doubt connected to the medical area for the doctor to be able to use in addition to whoever was connected through the door on the opposite wall. He realized that this must be where they had taken his phone to search through or to modify before he was sent home.

He turned the doorknob, silently praying that the door would be unlocked and elated when he found that the doctor must have forgotten to lock it before she went and got him from his classroom. He quickly sprinted inside and searched for his phone, missing the call, but able to find and grab his phone to put in his pocket before rushing back out and onto the bed again. He wasn't sure how long the doctor would be gone, but he wasn't taking any chances. Within the next minute, she returned and Jackson tried to appear as though he was still trying to fall asleep to not alert her to anything. She looked at him curiously for a moment before returning to getting his medicine.

"Everything alright? You seem far more flushed than when I left." She asked him. Jackson blinked his eyes a few times as he thought up a believable excuse. "Actually…I felt like I was going to be sick a minute ago but it passed." He said, prompting her to come back over to him. "I can tell. Your pulse is elevated." She said as she took his pulse again. Jackson tried to calm himself but knew he was failing miserably as she continued to scrutinize him with her hand on his wrist. "If you need to be sick, don't be shy about it." She said, pulling the trash bin closer for him to use. Jackson nodded, wincing again as his head throbbed.

The doctor let him go to administer his medication. "Do I have to stay here?" Jackson asked. She turned back around to stare at him. "You really are different. You know they'll still lock you in your room and I'm not going to sit with you like I could in here." She said to him.

Jackson gave a slight nod. "Yeah…but if they're going to blow up this floor with whatever's going on down the hall, I don't think I want to be up here." He said, only partly lying in his statement. The doctor laughed at that. "Oh is that it?" she asked, laughing a couple more times. "No. You'll be fine. But I'll let you stay in your room after dinner if it'll make you feel better." She bargained with him. Jackson smiled at her. "Thanks" he said, genuinely meaning it.

He spent the rest of the afternoon with the doctor, drifting off to sleep a couple of times before his nightmares woke him up screaming. Each time the doctor had been there to ease him back into a comfortable position on the bed. He knew that these weren't just fever dreams, Holt's face featuring predominantly in them, and dreaded the idea that they were just the beginning for him. By the time the doctor allowed him to sleep in his own room, he felt as though he might actually be too drained to make the phone call. But as the men who'd dragged him back to his room shut and locked the door, he managed to pull himself upright again and lean onto his windowsill.

The leader of the group hadn't been lying when she told him reception was terrible and he had to move around a few times to get enough bars to attempt a call. He also had to decide who to call – his parents were at the top of the list, followed by Frankie or Heath, but he didn't know where he was or how to let them find him. He also didn't know if they would be able to pick up on his attempt to call for help quickly too, especially since they had tampered with the device, most likely to prevent the tracking abilities on it from being activated. Thinking it over seemed enormously difficult for him, dizziness hitting him hard. But he heard a distinctly Holt-like voice whisper in his mind, '_Ghoulia_' before realizing that she would be able to trace the phone call if he was the one to contact her. He mentally thanked Holt for the moment of clarity before finding her number and calling her, hoping that she would answer.

He waited anxiously, continuously checking the door and out the window to see if they'd realized what he'd done yet, his heart hammering in fear. With each ring, he was sure that he'd been caught, but a moaning voice on the other end finally picked up. "Ghoulia – don't say anything, just listen. I've been kidnapped and I don't know where I am. I need you to track my phone's GPS and get the police out here or something. These people are the same ones that fake witch was with and they're trying to brainwash us and are planning something big right now but I don't know what." He said, listening for a response.

He heard Ghoulia groaning slowly as she told him that she'd do as she asked. "The last things I saw on the ride here was that there's a cliff face with a river that runs below it – the school must be nearby or on top of the cliff but I can't…" he said but a banging on his door let him know that he'd been caught. Ghoulia moaned to him to tell her what was wrong but he tossed aside the phone out the window as far as he could fling it. He watched it land in one of the dumpsters and smashing as it hit from the extra strength he'd put into his throw, Holt's abilities showing through more and more. But it looked like the piece Ghoulia required to remain intact might still be traceable.

Jackson lay back down as his door burst open and the leader marched inside. One of the men that had been supervising him and the others and the one he learned was Horace standing behind her. "Search him" she said, the men forcefully lifting him up and patting him down while she turned over his room. They dropped Jackson back onto the bed roughly as they came away empty handed. "Well, it seems like someone must have used your phone – any ideas?" she glowered at him. She walked over to him and gave him a smack to the face. "Answer me. You're not even sick are you?" she asked, smacking him again. But Jackson was all too happy to prove her wrong, unable to hold back and vomiting onto the floor. She made a face at him but motioned for the men to back off, the doctor rushing in to tend to Jackson.

"I told you he was sick!" she said. "Why would I make that up?" she said, easing Jackson back down onto the mattress, the covers having been tossed aside. Jackson really was having a difficult time as Holt was screaming at him to let him out, that he could deal with them, or that he should use his own limited fire powers to fight back. His head pounded and his chest felt tight as his other half was overtaking him as himself. His curled in on himself, not sure whether to clutch at his head, his chest or his stomach as it too seemed to want to release its contents again.

"He's hiding something from us. He must have made that call." The leader argued, pulling aside the doctor. The brunette stood her ground as she glared right back at the blond. "And I gave him another dose in his drink to get him to sleep through the night. He had no idea I did that so he couldn't have because he'd have been too groggy – he can't even hold his own right now if you'd just look at him." She said, causing Jackson to consider what she had said. He did remember thinking his drink at dinner tasted a little chalky but hadn't said anything. If that was the case, then either it was slow-acting or Holt's physical makeup was preventing him from taking any medicine. He groaned into the mattress as he thought about that, prompting the doctor to return to examining him.

"Nevertheless, the call was made." The leader said. "We'll need to start implementing our plan sooner than we thought." She said, motioning for the men to leave with her. As Jackson was left with the doctor alone in his room, she franticly looked him over. He continued to try and take a deep breath but couldn't get in much air, and he felt himself beginning to panic, snippets of Holt's voice and the echoes from the charm bouncing around with his own disjointed thoughts.

"Hey! Easy now!" the doctor said, coaxing him back into laying on his back for her. "It's over now, you can relax." She said, but Jackson shook his head as he tried to convey what the problem was. "If you're worried about them, I'm sure they'll find that the phone was tossed with a bunch of other technical stuff that we got rid of today." She said, causing Jackson to stare at her in wonder as though she could tell what had happened. "It wouldn't be the first time Steve has made a mistake with the students' property – we had to move the last time it happened too." She said, rubbing Jackson's arm comfortingly, but Jackson couldn't get himself to relax, beginning to dry heave.

"You need to try and calm down Jackson or you're going to make yourself worse. I don't have anything on me at the moment to help so you're going to have to listen to me, okay?" she said as Jackson clenched his eyes shut. She let out a frustrated sigh as one of the men entered the room again. "He's hyperventilating." She said to him as Jackson attempted to take in a deep breath despite the way it sent a cold feeling down his back.

"So? What do you want me to do about it?" the man asked. Jackson could practically hear her roll her eyes at him. "Go get me the stretcher and help me carry him back to my office so I can treat him." She said. Jackson could hear Holt's voice asking him to let him try and take over, just to see what would happen. Not knowing how things could get much worse, he let his other half know that he would ease up a little.

"Jackson?" he heard the doctor ask as he went still, before he felt Holt's presence more than he had ever before. Usually as they transformed it was like they were passing each other on the street and momentarily acknowledged one another, sending along their last feelings or most urgent thoughts if they concentrated enough. But this was totally different, as though they were fusing and Jackson shook as though to shake off the invisible arms that Holt had put around him, or to shrug on a jacket like the one Holt wore – in this state, he wasn't sure which action he was trying to pursue.

"Jackson?! Come on kid…hold it together!" he heard the doctor tell him, feeling as her arms tried to hold him still, making his motions all the more frantic as he tried to let Holt take control. He could vaguely hear more footsteps enter the room. "Holy…what's going on?" he heard the man ask.

"What does it look like? He's having some sort off seizure. Help me hold him so he doesn't hurt himself." she said to him. Jackson felt as though Holt was trying his hardest to come through, demanding that Jackson give him that last little push, but Jackson could only send out the thought that he didn't know how. He felt Holt finally ease up on his grip, slipping away in his mind, and Jackson went rigid as he searched for him before letting the exhaustion both of them experienced take over.

"Okay Jackson, okay" the doctor said, Jackson hearing how soft her tone was and feeling her run a hand across his cheek. "It's okay now. We'll make it better." She said. Jackson felt himself be lifted onto something and being carried away. He hoped that Holt wouldn't try anything again too soon, and that Ghoulia would be able to send him help before something else happened.

* * *

Frankie and Heath sat beside each other on the chairs in the police station as they waited for someone to get back to them about what they had said. It was nearly seven and they weren't sure what they were going to say to their parents. As it was, Cleo and Deuce were looking in the available phone book for a hotel in case they needed to stay the night. At the speed that things were going at, it seemed like that might be the case.

The officers whom they had talked to about Jackson's kidnapping were on the phone making the necessary calls to the police department in their home town to collaborate, but there didn't seem much else for the four friends to do to help out. They had suggested to the officers going to look at the surveillance at the bus terminal, but they'd been flatly refused in that request, even to just ask around. Apparently Jackson was the third in a list of missing persons cases that had come in from the larger regional police district within the last year and the police were suspecting an organized unit was doing this and didn't want either of the four of them to put themselves in harm's way.

"There's got to be more for us to do than just sit here." Heath said, crossing his arms as he leaned back into the chair. The human police officers had been a little wary when four monsters came in to talk to them about such a serious matter. But Frankie had to agree that this was getting them nowhere. She was about to commiserate with Heath when Cleo and Deuce walked up to them again, Cleo on the phone.

"Dudes, where's the guy we were talking with earlier? Ghoulia's on the phone and says that Jackson called her not that long ago to ask her to trace the signal from his phone." Deuce said, looking around for the guy they'd been talking to. Frankie jumped out of her seat and sprinted over to where she had last seen the officer go, ignoring the shouts of protests that she couldn't do that. She scrambled over to where he was flipping through folders with another officer to get his attention.

"Jackson just called our other friend from where he's being kept. She's trying to trace his call right now." She said breathless as Heath caught up to her. The officer called Cleo and Deuce over to put Ghoulia's call over speaker so that they could all talk to her – Cleo acting as translator for the officers who didn't speak zombie. The other officer pulled out a binder, flipping through to a specific page. He set the book down in front of Frankie, Heath and Deuce. "Do you recognize anyone from this selection of pictures?" he asked them before turning to his partner. "If they're using kids, maybe we have a record from one of them getting busted for something?" he said, the other shrugging as he wrote down what Ghoulia was saying.

"And so she's going to keep running that while the others head this way…" Cleo said before backtracking. "Who's coming here Ghoulia?" she asked. Ghoulia took her time answering, the officer pausing as Cleo smiled at him to let her friend finish. "Oh! I can understand his parents racing over here, but why everybody else?" she asked again, leaning onto the table. Ghoulia answered again and Cleo paused before answering.

"Our friends found a way to come here too, didn't they?" Heath asked, running a hand through his hair. Cleo nodded in response. "Your parents are heading here too." she said. "It seems Clawd and his sister are picking up Draculaura and Abbey – Gil and Lagoona can't seem to find a way here and are keeping Ghoulia company…say hi to them for us Ghoulia" Cleo said, turning from facing the officer to speak directly into the phone.

"Hey Cleo…" Lagoona's voice said, Ghoulia having put her on speaker phone as well it seems. "We're helping lay out some old fashioned maps while Ghoulia does her thing. Jackson said he'd seen a cliff face and a river as the last land feature before the call cut off." She said, the police officers making efforts of their own to pull out maps.

"And the sheriff is trying to send you what information they have too. I think they're escorting Jackson's and your parents Heath." Gil's voice said before they heard something knock over. "Careful Gil! The water's going to spill onto the maps." Lagoona said, causing their friends to chuckle. Ghoulia returned to moaning out her information.

"Uh oh" Cleo said her eyes widening in her typical dramatic gesture. "Jackson said they were planning on using him as a sort of sleeper spy when they sent him back but if they were able to catch onto his call, then they might go ahead with their plans…" she said, Deuce putting a hand on her shoulder to help calm her.

"Then you four definitely should not try to get involved. Call your friends and tell them not to head out this way." One of the officers said, but neither of the four made a move to do that immediately. Frankie sighed and tried to explain to them. "We could tell them, but they probably left as soon as we first called them that something was wrong – they'll probably be here any minute." She said, thinking over just how quick if Clawd was speeding on the highway to get here before Jackson's and Heath's parents to avoid being kept away. The officers huffed but had nothing to argue, no doubt opting to deal with the barrage of monsters once it arrived.

Sure enough, another twenty minutes later saw four more monsters come rushing in as Ghoulia continued to conference with the officers. She had been making progress since it was her that he had called and so she had access to at least one point in the search, but there was something getting in the way that made progress slower even for her skills. But Draculaura came rushing over to give Heath a giant hug, not caring to listen to her boyfriend's insistence to not make a big commotion. Abbey also walked over to her boyfriend and rested a hand on his shoulder until Draculaura released him to latch onto Frankie so that she too could give him a reassuring hug.

"Okay. You can't all be over here." One of the officers said, overcoming the shock from seeing so many monsters at once in the precinct. He tried to shoo them out of the way of all the desks but Deuce's exclamation stopped them all. "We know that girl." He said, pointing to one of the pictures in the binder and sliding it over for Heath to see, Clawd looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah. I recognize her too from when she cast that curse on the school." Clawd said as he looked at the picture of the petite blond girl. "She's the one who impersonated a witch to get inside and turn us all upside down." He explained, Heath nodding along as he looked at the picture. The other officer took the binder and began to pull up files on his computer. As he began to work, a female officer took over the role of trying to get the group of friends to wait away from the desks so that there would be room to work. They were reluctant to go, but it seemed that they finally had something to work with to get their friend back where he belonged.

* * *

Jackson tried not to let himself fall asleep as he was carried upstairs but at some point he realized he had drifted off, waking up to find himself attached to monitors like Thera had warned him about. "Oh good. You're awake." The doctor said to him, walking over to him as he pulled on one of the wires. "Leave that alone. It's for your own good." She said, taking readings as he looked around.

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked him and Jackson considered how he should answer. His silence was taken as his inability to recall things and the doctor wrote something down. "I think…I think the last thing I remember is having dinner and then starting to feel sleepy." He lied, hoping that he recalled what she had said about his drink was accurate. But that seemed to do the trick as the doctor nodded along with what he said.

"I suspected as much. I told that woman you couldn't have been the one…" she said, walking away to continue what she was doing. "Well, you had a bit of an issue with this illness but it passed and I'm making sure you'll get better." She said vaguely. "Until then, I'm sure you'd prefer a little more rest. I know I do. My room is in the opposite hallway so if something should happen and you need me for anything, I can be here in a matter of minutes." She said, readjusting a few things around Jackson. "Your fever is still pretty high and you should really try to get some sleep to keep your heartrate down." She said as she stood by the door. "Goodnight Jackson." she said, giving him a weary smile as he must have made her day difficult too. He responded in kind to her before staring up at the ceiling, wondering what he should do next.

He had just shut his eyes again after having tried to make himself comfortable with the wires attached to him everywhere when he heard the door slowly creak open. "Psst! Jackson…" Malcolm's voice floated over to him, causing Jackson's eyes to snap open and for him to try and sit up quickly. Alarms started blaring on the monitors as he did so, grimacing as his head throbbed painfully.

"Whoa…you really are in rough shape." His friend said as he shut the door quietly after Thera entered the room. She looked around apprehensively at all the equipment but sent a small wave to Jackson.

"How are you guys here? Didn't they lock your doors?" he asked, glancing at the clock to see that it was past the time they would have been sent to their rooms alone. Malcolm gave him a sly look, showing off his mother's heritage. "Whatever was wrong with you let me work my magic a little as they forgot to lock all the locks on my door." He said.

"Why do you have more than one lock on your door?" Jackson asked, Malcolm giving him a deadpan look. "Right, sorry, not thinking straight anymore." Jackson said, letting his head drop again. Malcolm snickered as he explained how he got himself out and then worked on releasing Thera. As they were talking, Thera picked up the chart that the doctor had written on, but Jackson couldn't find it in himself to protest her reading his personal information.

"Wow. I bet you're not thinking straight." She said as she looked back up at him. "You had a seizure?" she asked. Malcolm's eyes widened as he grabbed the chart to take a look for himself. Jackson sighed."Sorta…Holt tried to come through without a trigger. It didn't work out so well. At least he asked me first." Jackson said as the other two looked worriedly at him.

"But enough about me…I think I might be able for us to find a way out of here tonight." Jackson said, sitting up slowly this time. The others' eyes widened, not sure if they could take Jackson seriously after what had happened with him. He could sense this but pushed past it for the sake of time. "When I was brought up here after 'class', I learned that they've been having problems with whatever they're building on the opposite side of this hallway – something that can be ignited and I might be able to help with that." He said, Malcolm catching on to what Jackson was planning.

"At the very least, we can try to see what they're planning…and I'm guessing your episode made them push their schedule up." Malcolm said. "But I don't think you should go check that out with us." He said. Jackson had to catch himself before he rolled his eyes, knowing that it would irritate him. "I can help you. I can walk" he said, making to grab at the wires but Thera stopped his movements.

"No, that's not what I meant. They're monitoring you heavily after what happened – it's showing up somewhere else. They may not have cameras set up because of all their magical experiments interfering with them, but they'll probably notice if all of a sudden they stop getting readings from you." Malcom said, guiding Thera away from her wanderings around the room. "The doctor will probably come running thinking they'd have to go find another person to try and brainwash. As it is, you're probably making her jumpy with the amount of times that monitor has started to turn red." Malcolm said, Jackson nodding as he understood what he was saying.

"Fine. I get it – I won't make any sudden movements. But hurry and tell me what you see." Jackson said. Malcolm nodded. "Oh! Wait a sec'…even if you can get in, they've got have security all over that area. Lock-picking skills aside, you'll need quick hands to steal anything from there." Jackson said, thinking over how they were going to accomplish anything, assuming that no one was still in those rooms. It was ten o'clock at night, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Thera gave him a confident grin. "Don't worry about that. I may be out of it at times…" she said, letting Jackson know she had picked up on her wariness of him, "…but my mother taught me very well. Even if some people think she snatched me up and stole me away, she's spent a lot of time with me enhancing my abilities." She said, the look in her eye letting him know that she intended to make good use of said skills. Jackson nodded, thinking back on how Cupid had her own set of magical skills even though she too was adopted.

Malcolm and Thera made their way out quietly, leaving Jackson to wait in suspense for a half-hour. He was sure that he was going to set the alarms off again as he watched the monitors, trying to keep his heartrate down like the doctor told him. He really did want to try simply falling unconscious again to escape from feeling the way he did, but he knew he had to be ready for when they got back.

Malcolm and Thera caught him off guard as they burst through the door, startling him badly enough to set the monitors off again briefly. Jackson closed his eyes as he breathed deeply through his nose, trying to ignore the faint whispers at the back of his mind from Holt and the charm.

"Hey! Whoa! Take it easy Jackson…" Malcolm said as he came to stand next to him, his and Thera's arms full of supplies. Jackson nodded as the monitors stopped blaring and he could focus on them again. Malcolm and Thera looked concerned, but Jackson decided to get right to the point. "What did you find? And what is all that?" he asked, watching as they set down their armfuls of stuff on the counter by the sink.

"Well, there are a lot of mirrors in that room…and welding material. They must be trying some sort of entrapment spell like the one with the talking mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, or Bloody Mary…I'd prefer to go with the first." Malcolm said. Jackson chuckled. "Because the original of that fairytale isn't creepy at all." He sarcastically commented. Malcolm responded with a chuckle of his own as he thought about what Jackson had said.

"Anyway, they must be planning on setting them up to try and capture a bunch of monsters in some sort of shadow zone and use them - if all that scribbling on the backside of the mirror means anything - for their own purpose or as an energy source, or who knows…" he said, picking up a canister of something for Jackson to see in the miniscule light.

"What is this?" Jackson asked turning it to try and read the label only to realize his glasses had been taken away. "We grabbed anything that had a red flame and yellow background. We figured flammable meant usable." Thera responded, shrugging a little. Jackson smiled. "I can work with that. But we're going to need to find something to use as a fuse so when I ignite it, we don't go up too." he said, shutting his eyes and grabbing at his head as Holt's voice screamed loudly at him for something. Despite trying to stay calm to keep anyone from checking in on him, his breathing quickened and he almost dropped the can if Thera hadn't been quick enough to snatch it before it hit the ground.

"Uh oh" Malcolm said, pushing Thera back behind him as Jackson went rigid on the bed, the monitors making noises again. "Holt…I tried...I know…ugh…this ain't right for me to stay cooped up like this, yo! You know I need to be let out! It's no good for the both of us- Let the Holtster out!" Holt's voice said as Jackson talked, making the other two in the room extremely uneasy watching as some of Jackson's skin seemed to momentarily turn blue before changing back and Jackson turned onto his side, breathing heavily. Malcolm and Thera quickly picked up the canisters and hid behind one of the carts as they heard footsteps approaching.

"What is it Jackson?" the doctor said, her hair standing on end as she must have fallen asleep. She raced over to check on him, Jackson remaining silent except for his heavy breathing, but after a minute, the monitors returned to normal and Jackson appeared to be resting again. The doctor sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she checked the readings from the past few minutes. "This isn't looking good. I won't be able to convince her not to just dispose of you if I can't put you back together…" she said, turning back to look once more at Jackson. "Hold it together kid or you're not going to make it." She said, petting his hair before leaving the room once more.

Malcolm and Thera came out of their hiding spot, breathing a sigh of relief before going over to stand beside Jackson. Thera poked him, Malcom too late to stop her from just acting on her thoughts. "I'm good you two. Just needed to look like I was trying to sleep." Jackson said, slowly opening his eyes and taking a deep breath. "That's depressing news though, but not really surprising. We better act quick." He said, wiping a hand across his face to get his bearings. "Grab some gauze and we can get to work." He said, the two doing as he asked and making preparations for their escape.

* * *

The officers rushed around as they finalized getting all their information together with Ghoulia having finalized her search to a certain location. The officers used that and what they knew from their already existing files from the girl Deuce had pointed out.

"We're coming with you." Frankie said as they started to head out, but officers made it obvious that they were not welcomed as part of the rescue efforts. "Look – we can't stop you from following but keep your distance in case this gets ugly." One of the officers said to her and her friends. "And one of you should call your friend's parents and let them know we're heading out – or wait here and tell them when they get to the station." He called out as he and his partner left with a large group of police officers.

"We're not actually planning on waiting around here…are we?" Clawdeen asked disbelievingly as she watched them leave. Heath marched forward. "I'm not. I'll hold onto the back of one of those cars if I have to." He said, following them out. Deuce and Cleo rushed after him, the others not far behind.

"Dude. You're not on your own. We're coming too." Deuce said, Cleo nodding as she let him pull her along. The eight of them split up in their cars, pulling out to follow the flashing lights as they left the main portion of the town. As they drove, they realized how Jackson was actually much closer to where they were, finding it hard for them to shake off their feelings of guilt over not questioning things further. It seemed to take forever for them to pull onto the road that led to a large compound. As they approached from the bottom of the winding drive up to the building, they hoped that they were quick enough to find them before they could move on and take their friend with them.

* * *

"Okay, that should be enough. And you put the others where I said?" Jackson said as he twisted the last of the gauze into one of the canisters. Malcolm nodded at Jackson's question, "Right around the room with all the mirrors. This one for getting out?" he asked as Jackson held onto the canister. He nodded and propped himself up more as he felt himself sagging against the back of the bed again.

"But what about the doctor? I don't want her to get hurt. She's the only one sorta nice." Thera said worriedly. Jackson smiled reassuringly at her. "I've got a plan for that. She'll likely come running again as soon as I disconnect the wires. I'll lay back down so that when she comes in, she'll come straight to me. You two will have to do something to keep her from following or letting the others know that we're up to something." he said. Thera didn't look too pleased, taking the canister from Jackson, but nodded as Malcom rummaged around in the cabinets. "This might knock her out quick." He said, holding up a needle filled with sedative. Jackson shrugged but it was their best plan.

Malcom and Thera stood behind the door, and Jackson waited for them to nod before he pulled the wires off him, leaving them just brushing his skin. The monitors wailed and he lay back onto the bed with his eyes closed. As predicted, the doctor came rushing in a few moments later, making a beeline for the bed. "Oh no Jackson…come on!" she said, as she read the monitors and looked like she was getting ready to try and revive him. Malcolm snuck up behind her and stuck the needle in her, injecting her with the sedative. She whipped around in surprise as she spotted the other two standing in the room, her mouth open to cry out before slowly sinking to the floor as she fell unconscious. Thera remained frozen where she was standing by the door, her look distant. Jackson sprang up from the bed as fast as he physically could, turning the monitors off before they got anyone's attention. He clutched his head as he stumbled out of the room, Malcolm following as he dragged Thera along with them. Jackson could feel the charm's influence starting to make more of an impact. He was going to say something to Malcolm about his slipping concentration on that when they heard a commotion.

"We better be quick." Jackson said, igniting the gauze and forcing his body to take off at its top speed in his condition, following Malcolm and Thera down the stairs and toward the back where they normally exited for their lunchtime outdoors. They heard the canisters go off, a bang shaking the whole building as debris flew everywhere and knocking them off their feet. "Come on, let's go. Toss the other one that way – they're coming!" Malcolm said, the first to get up. Jackson struggled to stand, not bearing the brunt of their escape very well. He ignited the canister, but Malcolm was the one to toss it. The boys watched as it hit the floor and exploded, turning to go out the other way as the flames started to get closer to them. But Thera just stood there, Malcolm tugging on her arm to get her to move. She turned her head to face him and let out a high-pitched screech. "They're here! They're here!" she shouted screaming again. Malcolm stared in horror as Thera repeated this, betraying them to their captives.

"Malcolm leave her!" Jackson said, pushing the boy into action. "The charm's got her now! They won't hurt her if she's loyal to them. Come on!" Jackson said, coughing as the smoke started to bother him. The other boy reluctantly followed, leaving Thera to stand in the middle of the crumbling building as she screamed. They raced outside and continued on, Jackson assuming that the cliff had to be in the direction they were heading. He reasoned that if they made it to the water, they might be able to lose any pursuer.

They reached the cliff and paused to look down and catch their breath, looking over their shoulder in time to see the driver chasing after them and brandishing a gun. "Jump!" Jackson shouted, he and Malcolm leaping down into the waters.

* * *

As Frankie's car and the other group's pulled up behind the police vehicles, they had seen a commotion already starting. They had gotten out of their cars and huddled together behind the police as they began to move forward, people seen in the windows of the building. Just as the police had begun to get closer with the intent of making arrests and rescues, the friends witnessed the explosion that went off on the second floor.

The girls screamed as they hid their faces from any flying debris. "I hope your friend wasn't in that section of the building." The nearest police officer to them said as he turned to check on them. Heath coughed, before answering the man. "If he was still okay…he's probably the one who set it off" Heath said to him. A minute later, as more people were running out into the awaiting handcuffs of the police, another explosion went off just as Jackson's and Heath's parents arrived with their police escort.

"What kind of a rescue is this?" Jackson's mother shouted, his father not in his Hyde form yet and finding himself in a reversal of roles as he tried to calm her down. Her hair was ablaze, her eyes alight as she watched the scene. She looked ready to rush into the burning building herself when the medical and fire team showed up and immediately got to making short work of the fire and treating those unlucky enough to have been too close.

The police teams had sat all the members of this group in rows on the ground, taking names for those who were speaking. "Hey, that's the girl we saw." Draculaura nudged Clawdeen as she looked over the sight too. Clawdeen saw that she was indeed among the group of people being arrested, but she and the others were still concerned over the fact that the fire crew had checked the building and was sure that there was no one left inside. Yet, no trace of Jackson had been found.

"Let me go…I must get to my family. I must do ask they ask. I want to be of service to them. Let me go" a young woman's voice was heard shouting as she was being carried to one of the ambulances. The police had held off on handcuffing her, noting how she differed in dress from the others. The police were running the name she gave them for herself as the medical team tried to calm her. "They did not let them help them, like they did for me. They blew it all up and ruined all their work." She was saying, pulling the oxygen mask off of her face to keep talking.

"Who blew it up?" one of the officers asked, Jackson's friends and family not too far from where she was being looked over, in case they might be able to learn something. The officer clearly knew what they were up to, but disregarded dealing with them in favor of getting answers. The traumatized girl took a moment before answering, as though questioning if she should continue to talk to anybody. "Malcolm and Jackson abandoned us. They abandoned what we were told was our duty. I screamed and they ran to get out. Malcolm shouted to me, 'Thera, come on', but I couldn't…I didn't want to, but I couldn't…I don't…" Thera started to ramble as her mind tried to focus on what was happening, the charm still affecting her but with its destruction, its influence waning slowly to let her provide the police with some information.

"Told ya' he blew it up" Heath said from where he was standing next to Abbey, but the officer ignored his comment. He turned to a few others as they relayed the information to the officers who had spread out to look for anymore members that might have escaped in other directions.

"We have to go help the search parties." Heath's father said, not leaving room for negotiation in his voice. The head of operations seemed to want to argue with that, but given his already limited amount of men at the scene and the fact that these monsters would go ahead anyway, he sighed and nodded before pointing to another man who was coordinated the search teams.

"We've got another!" another officer's voice rang out as they dragged the driver back to the group with great difficulty. He was seated on the ground next to the others, but he refused to look at any officer. He was asked for information on the group as the others had been, Frankie and the others watching as Jackson's and Heath's parents worked to split up their group to go look for him. They watched how finally, at the question of if they knew about the boys, they got a reaction from him. He turned to look at them with an infuriating smirk on his face. "Yeah…they jumped off the cliff. If the dark-haired one wasn't on his way out before, he probably didn't survive that fall. Ha ha…and the leprechaun can't swim." He laughed at them, confident that his problem of the boys talking was handled for him.

There was more scrambling to hurry at that news, especially by Jackson's parents and friends. "Okay, you can split up into two groups and head down by the water's edge. They probably floated with the current and washed up somewhere around the forest area if they could get themselves out." The police officer said to them, seeing how anxious they had all become and not wanting to deal with a bunch of angry monsters. "Some of my men will go with you." He said, motioning for those he intended to accompany them to head over and begin to head out.

"He can't have been telling the truth about that…" Jackson's mother worried, but it would seem that her concern made an impact on one of the women handcuffed. "It's true…"the doctor sighed groggily from still coming out of the sedative she'd been given, receiving a look from the leader to keep quiet. "No, I'm not being involved in any more injuries or deaths." She said to her. She turned back to Jackson's parents. "Jackson was being kept from transforming, to try and subdue his more monstrous qualities, but Jackson told me how it was hurting him. He'd only just today been brought to me for an illness he'd contracted. But not more than a few hours ago he'd had some sort of seizure as his other half tried to transform without its trigger." She said, eliciting horrific looks from Jackson's parents. The doctor swallowed thickly as she started to tear up. "I'm so sorry." She said, before quieting again.

Jackson's parents made their intention of doing something all the more urgent. It would take at least a couple of minutes to safely get down to the water's edge to help them. Frankie was already sparking at the bolts, Draculaura and Clawdeen doing their best to help their friend. Cleo was working on helping Deuce stay calm so he didn't just give in and turn people to stone before the police could tell them anything, Clawd trying his best to back her up as he too felt ready to run. Heath wasn't too far from his parent's sight and Abbey was making sure that he never felt as though he was doing anything alone. As they rushed to get to the water, they split up as they searched the forest.

* * *

Jackson resurfaced from the water quickly, trying to get his bearings. "Malcolm!" he'd shouted out, looking around for the other boy. He saw some flailing arms and a bit of red float by and he struggled to move his body in that direction to follow. He grabbed onto Malcolm's arms and helped get his head above the water. "I can't swim and this was your plan?!" he angrily shouted to Jackson. Even when he should have been concentrating on remaining afloat, Jackson found it amusing how Malcolm let that be the first thing to come out of his mouth. Jackson struggled to bring himself and the other boy to the bank, swimming with all his might until Malcolm grabbed onto a tree trunk that was jutting out enough for them to cling to and pull themselves ashore. They lay next to each other on the bank for a few moments to catch their breath.

"I would have appreciated a little more info on our escape plan to know whether or not it was deadlier to just stick around back there. You're unbelievable. And Thera's still back there. I don't see how that's a success if all that's gonna happen is they're just gonna come searching for us and we'll stick out in this forest. Was there anything else I needed to…when did you start getting red hair?" Malcolm said, cutting off his own tirade as he sat back down where Jackson was still lying. He ran a hand through Jackson's hair as he took in the red highlights that dotted his hair, noticing how its texture had changed too. Jackson remained with his eyes clothes, taking deep breaths. "Jackson?" Malcolm asked, shaking him to get him to open his eyes. Jackson groaned as he did, taking Malcolm by surprise. "Whoa! You've got some weird stuff going on with your eyes man!" he said, unnerved by how much red was mixed with Jackson's blue. Jackson heaved himself upright slowly, Malcolm helping him to stand.

"Holt won't shut up…" Jackson said, swaying as he stood. "But we need to keep moving." He said, pointing into the forest. The two of them walked into its cover, Malcom breaking off a tree limb and pulling the smaller branched and leaves off. "It no sheleighleigh but it'll do." He said, walking back next to Jackson. "By the way, I didn't expect a nerdy guy like you to be able to be so athletic. Thanks for that – even if you still left me in the dark about the swimming part of the plan." He said, Jackson just nodding along to let Malcolm know he was listening.

They continued on in silence for a few minutes, listening for anyone that might be following them. But Jackson suddenly broke that silence as he let out an inhuman-sounding growl as he clutched his head. Malcolm jumped away from him as he watched Jackson twist this way and that, eyes clenched shut and face twisted in pain as his flames began to form from his hair intermittently. Once that had eased up, Jackson leaned heavily onto a nearby tree.

"Whoa…um…I know us pasty whites tend to have veins more visible, but you're blue all over." Malcolm hesitatingly said, prompting Jackson to look over his arms and chest to see streaks of blue running throughout. "Let's get back to civilization so you can transform and then…" Malcolm started to suggest before Jackson pushed himself away and began looking back and forth as though he could see something. "Jackson?" Malcolm asked slowly, wary that his friend might not be all there at the moment – or perhaps too much was there.

Jackson just stood still, as though unable to get his body to move. "I need to get out. I can take care of this better than you. We've got to get back home - mom, dad, Frankie - but I can't move! What's the use in just talkin' if you ain't gonna let me move?!" Holt's voice said again from Jackson before he stumbled forward as Holt's influence receded again. Jackson leaned forward onto his knees before letting out hysterical laughter.

"This is insane. The world is insane." Jackson said, continuing to stare around wide-eyed. "There's, there's monsters everywhere – new ones in the hiding in the dark…" he said, holding out a hand as though to stop the monsters he saw hiding in the cover of the night. Malcolm twisted around too, worried that their pursuers may have triggered Jackson's behavior.

"And there are so many voices…I don't know which one is my own. What is…ugh…bad is good and good is bad, everything's…there's snakes, and blood…mirrors…I can't…"Jackson rambled before giving out a loud yell. Malcolm tried to shush him, but Jackson did it again before taking off at high speed into the forest. Malcom tried to follow but Jackson had seemingly vanished into the forest. He paused as he heard a rustle, waiting to see who it was that had found him, raising his weapon to not go down without a fight.

He let out a fighting yell as a police officer followed by Cleo and Deuce emerged from the bushes carrying a flashlight. The officer let Malcolm swing down, catching him on the down-stroke to grab a hold of him.

"Easy there fightin' Irish. We're here to help." The officer said, eyeing the boy as one of those they were looking for. Malcolm stopped struggling as he took in the uniform and the two monsters who were staring at him. He sagged in relief, dropping his weapon as he let out a tiny, breathless laugh. "It's about time. And don't call me that" he said as the officer released his hold. "I've had to work through their charms for months now." He said.

"Dude, where'd Jackson go?" Deuce interjected into the angry boy's sure-to-be rant. Malcolm turned to face Deuce, eyeing the snakes on his head. "Well that explains one thing he was ranting about" he sighed. "Jackson wasn't doing too well. I thought he'd gotten it together again, but as we were walking, he completely lost it and took off. I couldn't follow him in the dark." Malcolm said as the police officer relayed his position to get more people to search this part of the woods. He turned back to the officer to ask, "Did you find Thera?" The officer paused as he thought about the name before recognizing it and giving the boy a nod, Malcolm visibly relieved at the news.

They could hear more voices as the search parties began to look for Jackson. Malcolm was escorted to awaiting medical teams, complaining about how wet he was because of Jackson's improvised plan. Deuce and Cleo continued onward, hoping that Jackson couldn't have gotten too far ahead. Unfortunately, their friend seemed very good at hiding as dawn approached and the sky turned gray.

"Here. I find him!" Abbey's voice rang out loud and clear, shooting a burst of ice above the tree line to turn into snow for the others to see. Frankie broke away from Dracularua and Clawdeen to race over, arriving in time to see Jackson's father arrive. Heath was kneeling next to Jackson as he lay on the ground, softly calling out to him, but Jackson kept staring straight ahead.

"Whoa!" Clawdeen breathed out when she and Draculaura arrived, taking in the blue lines that crossed Jackson's skin. "Jackson, say something man…" Heath was saying to him, only shifting away when Dr. Jekyll tried to get his son to respond.

"Jackson, it's okay. We're here now." His father said, looking afraid to touch him. Jackson continued to blink slowly before barely looking over at his father. "Holt" he said, his voice not sounding his own. His father swallowed before nodding. "Okay…I'm talking to you Holt?" he asked, Heath looking incredibly confused as the others finally showed up.

Jackson blinked again, making a small affirmative noise but unable to move. "We're both…slipping." Holt said through Jackson. "I can't move and…his thoughts…I can't find them right now…" he said, squeezing his eyes shut. "Head hurts so bad…can't think" he said as his father held onto his hand.

"Why's he like this?" Frankie whispered to Heath, although the elemental seemed to be in a bewildered state too. His mother answered for him as she pulled her son closer. "Jackson's great-grandfather tried to undo his experiment too, remember? He went a couple of weeks before he couldn't handle it and collapsed. The normies wrote it off as him dying from his experiments but obviously not – his wife helped him to move away and get both halves back to themselves again. Jackson's gone five weeks." She whispered as she tried to explain. Frankie gasped, along with the others who had been listening to her as they gave Jackson and his father a wide berth.

Jackson groaned again as he shut his eyes and scrunched his face up in pain, letting out a yell as Jackson seemed to be momentarily all of himself again, looking around wildly and beginning to thrash as he tried to break away from his father's hold. His mother arrived with Clawd, Cleo and Deuce to see him struggling with his father.

"Sweetie it's okay. We're here." His mother said as she dropped to her knees to help her husband. Jackson looked at her for a moment before yelling again. "Mom's here Jackson." she tried to soothe him again as he grew more violent, triggering his father to let his Hyde side out to hold onto him.

"No. You're a monster! You're a monster – you're not my mother…Let go…" he struggled before slumping in his father's hold, exhaustion and the cold night spent outside in nothing more than his pants taking its toll on him. His mother looked absolutely stricken as she gazed at her son and then back to her husband. "Why…why would he say that? Didn't he recognize me?" she asked, tearing up. Frankie also looked disturbed, leaning into Draculaura's embrace as they watched.

"They were attempting to brainwash the kids, ma'am" an officer said as he watched. "Whatever they did is probably the cause of his confusion." He suggested as he fidgeted with so many monsters continuing to look to him for answers. Jackson's father's Hyde side began to maneuver Jackson so he could carry him. "Sir, I don't think I can allow you to move him before the medical units reach us." He said, but shrunk away as he was met with a terrifying look from Mr. Hyde. He gulped and nodded, letting Jackson be carried out to meet the ambulance.

* * *

They followed the emergency vehicles to the hospital and stood around in the waiting room as Thera, Malcolm, and Jackson were set up in their own large room. Once they were allowed in to see their friend, Frankie and Heath leading the way, they were surprised to find that Thera's mother was already there and holding her daughter's hand as she slept. Malcolm was still wide awake and talking a mile a minute with Jackson's parents, but Jackson had been sedated too and was sleeping.

"Oh, hello again!" Malcolm greeted them, receiving some waves but mostly yawns from not having slept through the night. Clawdeen and Draculaura made use of the remaining empty bed to relax in, drifting off shortly, Clawdeen snoring a little. Her brother laughed at that, choosing to sit in one of the several seats that had been brought in by the staff who had heard about the large group of monsters that weren't planning on leaving anytime soon. Heath and Abbey leaned against the windowsill, Heath's parents also leaning against the wall as his father tried to comfort Jackson's mother.

"Did your son not recognize you either?" Thera's mother finally addressed them, looking pointedly at them. Jackson's mother looked over at her in surprise, Malcolm also looking sideways at her. Overcoming the shock and seeing that the harpy was waiting for an answer, Jackson's mother nodded. "I didn't know if it was just him because of what he's going through…" she answered, trailing off as Thera's mother nodded. "My daughter was convinced that I couldn't be a mother to her when I first got here." She said, looking just as distressed as Jackson's mother. "That's hard to hear – especially if you've adopted" she said, turning back to look at her daughter and stroking her hand. It seemed that was all she was going to contribute to the conversation for now, making the expression of 'harping' on something seem to be completely untrue. Then again, the situation wasn't something that anyone felt would lend themselves to talking, except for Malcolm as he turned back to talk to Deuce about how cool it was to meet a gorgon. Deuce sighed as he put his patience to the test, Cleo giggling at her boyfriend being the center of a half-leprechaun's attention. She knew how much they could sometimes get a little too focused on any one thing and Deuce seemed to have caught his attention fully. Clawd also smirked but Frankie seemed to be relying heavily on Abbey's support.

Thera groaned as she started to wake up, blinking open her eyes and looking around at her new surroundings. Her mother stood up and sat on the bed next to her, trying and failing to not appear like a vulture. Thera stared at her for a moment and Malcolm braced himself for her screaming to start again like the last time she'd woken up. But it seemed like there was recognition this time as Thera didn't pull her hand out of her mother's. She copied her mother's movements, turning her head sideways as she looked at her. "M-mom?" she tentatively asked in a small voice. Her mother's face brightened immensely at hearing her daughter speak to her again, pulling her into a tight hug and wrapping her wings around her.

"I'm so sorry I let you go, Thera. I thought it might actually be _good_ for you to help with dealing with your father's death. Oh, I should have been thinking clearer." Her mother said, answering Malcolm's questionings from earlier. Thera didn't say anything but continued to hold her mother, shooting a look over to Malcolm who smiled back.

"There he is! There's ma' wee bairn!" An accented voice said, preceding a diminutive woman who sprinted over to Malcolm. Malcolm's face brightened up at seeing his mother, but he flinched when he realized she was going to launch herself at him. His father came in a considerable few paces behind his wife. "Honey, be careful with him." He said, pulling his wife away as Malcolm squirmed. Laughs were heard around the room, causing the boy to turn a bright shade of red. "I'm so glad to see you too mom, dad." He said, smiling widely at them.

"We're glad to see you okay. We were told they'd been trying to brainwash you into their cult or something." His father said, but Malcolm waved off his concern. "They tried to use a charm to pull that off. I gave them the run-around and they didn't even know it." He said. His mother laughed, which sounded like bells tinkling. "That's ma' boy." She said before unable to restrain herself and latching onto him again, his father ruffling his unruly hair with his hand.

The commotion had woken up Draculaura and Clawdeen who looked over to see the reunion before turning back to their friend. "When do you think he'll wake up and be able to transform into Holt?" Abbey asked as she stood beside Frankie, asking the question for her. Jackson's father sighed.

"He needs to be stable enough for us to let Holt out. Even then, we don't know what state Holt will be in or if simply triggering his transformation will be enough." He said. "But hopefully if she was able to come out of her delirium by now, then so could Jackson the next time he wakes." Frankie sighed at the news, but figured that Dr. Jekyll would be the one to understand the way his son's mind works better than the doctors.

"You all should call your parents, maybe head home." Jackson's mother said. "We'll let you know how things go." She said, but received a chorus of refusals. She sighed, having already expected that but still attempting to alieve one worry. "Then why don't you all at least go get something to eat as we wait. It could be a while." Heath's mother said, hoping to assist her sister-in-law. Begrudgingly the others realized what they were trying to ask of them and slowly shuffled out to head to the cafeteria and grab something quick. All but Heath, Frankie, Abbey and Deuce remained, sitting more towards the empty bed's area to give Jackson and his family some more room, Heath pacing between them.

Jackson began to moan and shift around as he started to come back into consciousness. His parents leaned in closer, gently encouraging their son to relax. But Jackson woke up swinging, his father having to hold him down as he grunted to throw him off of him. He looked like he was struggling to keep from transforming too, to keep from alarming his son further as the monitors started to blare as he messed around with the wires connected to him. Malcolm watched in fright as Jackson had this fit, his parents holding onto him in a way similar to Thera's mother as they saw what could have happened to their child.

"Jackson, Holt, if you can both hear me, you need to relax. Holt – you can't come out unless Jackson is awake and calm so you both don't hurt each other." Jackson's father said. But Jackson was able to get in a good kick to his mother and toss her into his aunt as his uncle took over her spot. Nurses came in to try and get a sedative into him to keep him calm, his fever still high. But they couldn't get close enough with the fire elementals' unable to contain their flame as they struggled to hold him. They told them to let the nurses take over, but Jackson went still before they needed to administer anything to him.

"Jackson?" Frankie spoke up from where she and her friends had jumped up from their seats as Jackson started to wake up. Jackson blinked a few times as the blue on him from Holt receded out in splotches on his skin, his hair returning to his normal dark hair and his eyes keeping some red in them. Dr. Jekyll eased his hold on Jackson, his mother coming back in the hopes that Jackson had shaken off the charm's influence.

"Who's Jackson?" he asked his mother, looking back and forth between the people surrounding his bedside. His mother's face looked blank as she processed what he said to her, before shaking her head to try again. "H-holt?" she asked timidly, but Jackson continued to stare at her before looking around again. "Who?" he asked genuinely confused.

Frankie felt her legs give out, Abbey's strong hands holding her up so she could guide her over to one of the chairs. Heath looked like he might have fallen over too if Clawd hadn't let him hold onto his shoulder. Jackson looked past his father to see his friends standing behind him. He looked back to his father who was still holding onto him. "I don't know what's going on…I…I'm not whole." He said before shivering from his fever. The nurses finally managed to give him some medicine and Jackson began to drift off again.

"What happened?" Heath asked, Dr. Jekyll turning to face him as his wife snuggled up to her son. "Have you ever heard of someone experiencing something so bad or feeling so mad, that they claim not to remember it?" he tried to explain to his nephew. Heath and the others nodded and Dr. Jekyll sighed. "I think that's what happened, but he's not like other boys and for both him and Holt…they must have just…forgotten about each other and therefore themselves." He said, rubbing a hand across his face as he had to diagnose his own son.

"Perhaps next time he's awake, he'll be alright enough to trigger Holt and see if Holt's got the same problem." His mother said, clinging to that last bit of hope. They weren't sure what they would do if that was the case, but it seemed that both halves of him would be needing as much help from his friends as possible.

The next time that Jackson woke up, he was much calmer but still not aware of who he was or who the others were. "Sorry. I've got nothing – unless my nightmares count…" Jackson said, his voice showing no traces of Holt's echoing through. He looked genuinely sorry that he couldn't remember anything for his family. As they spoke with him, Heath apparently had enough and walked out into the hallway, his mother following him to go talk with him.

"What's up with him?" Jackson asked as his father handed him a drink of water. Dr. Jekyll sighed but Frankie beat him to answer. "He's just worried about you and doesn't know how to help." She said, walking a little closer. Jackson watched her every move as he tried to recall who she was, Frankie uncomfortable under his unrecognizing look.

"Oh, but he didn't do anything, did he?" he asked as Heath was brought back into the room by his mother. The timing couldn't have been worse as Heath heard his question and tried to turn around and leave. Abbey sighed loudly but stayed where she was, Deuce sitting beside her. Jackson watched curiously as Heath involuntarily let out a few flames, one landing on his shoulder that his mother put out before his clothes caught. "Wait…a fireball…to the face…" Jackson said, rubbing his head as he thought back on something and causing everyone to pause. Jackson looked up before his eyes widened and he clenched his eyes shut in what must have been a shooting pain in his head.

"Easy, easy" Dr. Jekyll said, motioning for his wife to set up the music. If they were going to attempt to trigger Holt, then they needed to do so now. She turned the volume all the way up on her phone and pressed play, bringing it closer to her son so that it would be loud enough for Holt to be triggered. Jackson gasped again, but a burst of flame spread along his body and Holt was released for the first time in over a month, breathing heavily as he leaned back onto his bed.

"Holt?" Dr. Jekyll asked cautiously, trying not to leave himself open to disappointment if his son didn't know who he was. But Holt turned to look at his father. "Finally…I thought I was gonna…suffocate for real this time." He said, reaching out a hand to his mother who burst into her unshed tears and pulled him into a hug. Holt smiled as he returned the hug, his father also emotional as he held onto his son's shoulder.

"But Jackson's gone! I can't find him at all! It's like there's this whole other guy or something crammed in here too" Holt said, pointing to his head as his mother pulled back. "I was able to talk, well that's not it, but anyway, he heard me more and more as the days went on. And I could hear him a little too - he wasn't lettin' me out. I was gettin' real mad and screamin' at him until I realized that it wasn't him doin' this" he began to explain. "I couldn't help it – I pushed him and tried to get out. Jackson said, thought, whatever, that he was gonna try and let me and I tried real hard that one time, but I think…maybe I did this…I couldn't help it and we tried to help each other, but he's gone!" Holt said, getting worked up. His mother let out a sob again before pulling Holt into another hug, Dr. Jekyll releasing Mr. Hyde so that he could talk with his son too.

Frankie began to cry too, Abbey getting up and letting her sit in her now empty seat as she stroked Frankie's hair. Heath leaned heavily into his mother as they absorbed that piece of information that Jackson might not ever be Jackson again completely.

"Hi Holt." Malcolm's voice interjected into the silence. Holt looked over to see who was talking to him. "Not sure if you know of me, but I spent the last five weeks with Jackson at that awful place." He said, his mother latching onto his arm. "Jackson really did try to find a way to get you out but they took our phones away 'cuz 'they'll provide us with whatever we could ever want'." Malcolm said, rolling his eyes as he quoted what had been repeated to him. "It's nice to finally meet you – we almost spoke once." He said but didn't go further into what had happened down by the river.

Holt nodded and gave a wave to him. "Yeah…it must've been you I saw the last time I tried to…y'know. Sorry about all that if I scared ya'" Holt said, sitting up more. Malcolm attempted to put on a brave front. "Nah. Of course not…people talking in voices not their own wouldn't do that to anybody, would it?" he said, nervously laughing as he tightened his hold on his mother's arm as she held him. Holt nodded but turned his attention to the others in the room.

"Frankie!" he happily exclaimed. "I didn't think I'd be seein' you here too!" he said, Frankie wiping her tears away. "Oh come on now…the Holtster can't handle so much cryin'…" he said, reaching out for her to come closer. Frankie didn't look like she could move though, only staring at Holt. "Frankie-Fine….I'm still me…please don't…" Holt starting to say as Frankie shook her head and leaned into Abbey's shoulder as she cried again. "Frankie…" she heard Holt's heartbroken voice call out to her, "I told you I didn't mean it. I didn't…" he said, sounding on the verge of tears now too.

"Abbey, take her out of here." Heath's father said, walking over to Holt's friends to usher them out so that his parents could try to work something out for how to help their son's even more fractured state. "No…Frankie!" Holt yelled as they left the room, beginning to struggle to get off of the bed and follow her. But his movements were stiff from not being able to move his own body for such a long period of time. Frankie found herself forcing herself not to look back as Holt called out for her again. She felt terrible that she couldn't control her emotions, but wasn't able to go from grieving the loss of one half to happy to see the other like he wanted. She felt as though she could fall to pieces more than she usually did, letting Abbey and Deuce guide her to where the rest of their friends were waiting for them in the cafeteria.

* * *

"I can't believe Jackson's gone! But Holt's still with us…" Draculaura said as the group sat in the cafeteria, Frankie still traumatized. Abbey and Deuce relayed the information to their friends as Frankie sat in stunned silence, Heath still in the room with his cousin.

"There's got to be a way for us to get that half of him back." Clawd said, thinking about what his friend might have suggested if he was there with them. "Jackson wouldn't want us to just give up on him, especially since he fought so hard to get out of that place." He said, his sister and girlfriend nodding along with him in agreement. But that seemed to be the wrong thing to say to Frankie as she yet again looked on the verge of crying. Cleo rolled her eyes but patted their friend on the back.

"Come on Frankie. We know you feel bad about the way things went down with Holt when he transformed, but nobody blames you for being overwhelmed." She said, looking to the others to back them up. They took her hint and agreed, trying to get Frankie to gather herself together. At this point they meant it only figuratively, as they had earlier startled the others in cafeteria as Frankie kept losing limbs now and then as she paced around. As it was, only the bravest or hungriest of those remained, leaving them with as much privacy as they could get.

"Maybe I should head back up to talk with him" Frankie said as she picked up on her friends' encouraging remarks, giving them a small smile of her own to alleviate their concern for her too. Deuce nodded as he leaned forward onto the table. "If anyone can help pull the dude together again, it would be you Frankie. He did ask you to wait for him, right? They both did?" he asked, Frankie nodding as she could see where he was going with that train of thought. She took a deep breath and stood up, Abbey still watching her carefully.

"I did tell him that. It might be a little longer now, but I'm still willing to wait for Jackson." she said, smoothing out her hair and clothes. "But I shouldn't make Holt wait any longer. It's not fair to him." She said, beginning to head out of the cafeteria. "I'll see you guys in a minute…unless…you want to come too?" she asked, not sure whether or not she really wanted them to come along.

"Will be up in ten minutes. Give you time to be talking things through." Abbey said, giving her friend a nod to let her know that they would be there for her too. Frankie gave them a small smile, grateful for her understanding friends, before heading out and to the elevator.

As she walked back to the room Holt was in, the music still playing loudly enough to keep Holt transformed but not enough to be too disruptive to the other patients in the hallway, she noticed how gloomy Holt was. "But mom…everybody's gonna think I did 'im in on purpose." Holt said, sniffling a little as his mother handed him a tissue. "If Frankie thinks like that, then it's a definite the others are gonna be that way too – they haven't even come to see me yet." Holt mumbled, leaning into his mother's embrace.

Frankie cautiously entered the room, Heath being the first to notice her. He nudged his parents to let them know they probably should give Holt some privacy, as much as he could get with his parents hovering and two other families in the room. They saw what he was indicating not so subtly to them and made an excuse to leave the room. "He's really not good right now Frankie. Please…just let him talk to you even if there's nothing you have to say to him." Heath said before following his parents out.

Frankie took a deep breath before stepping into Holt's line of vision, his gaze still directed downward. His head snapped up as he recognized her signature shoes, and he winced as it hurt his head. "You came back" he said in wonder, his voice more subdued as he faced her. Frankie nodded before coming to stand closer to his bed, his mother and father pulling away to let them talk.

"I'm here…" Frankie began shrugging a little. "I'm…I'm sorry about earlier. There was just so much to take in and emotions were bouncing back and forth…" she said nervously. Holt looked back down, clearly having been hoping for some other kind of introduction from her.

"I know. I'm sorry too." he said, using the tissue his mother had given him. "Please don't leave me Frankie." He pleaded with her, his eyes wide. "I already feel so broken, knowing that it's just me and…whatever's left of Jackson…" he said. "I don't want to be alone." He whined, appearing to curl in more on himself. Frankie felt her emotions warring inside of her as she looked at her boyfriend as he copied a motion that was more like Jackson's than his. She took another deep breath before coming to sit next to him and pulled him into her arms. He clung to her, afraid that she might let go too soon for his liking.

"I'm not going to leave you. I told both you and Jackson I'd wait for you to figure things out when you first found out about each other and again when you were taken away." She said as she leaned into his shoulder. "I'm keeping my promise. Like you said – you're still you and it's not right for me to blame you for something you had no control over." She said, pulling away to give him a quick kiss to his cheek. "I still love you Holt" she said as he looked at her to see if she was telling him the truth or what he wanted to hear. He gave her a tiny smile and leaned down to kiss her again, which she happily returned until the monitors began to make noises and they pulled apart embarrassed. His parents were chuckling in the corner as they looked on, Mr. Hyde with his arm wrapped around his wife. Malcolm and Thera were also trying not to laugh outright, but Malcolm's mother didn't seem to care about propriety and let out a loud laugh before her husband shushed her.

"Hey dad?" Holt called over to his father, who pulled away from his wife to come over. "Do you think you could convince the nurses to let me walk around a little? I'm tired of not being able to move and I need to stretch." He said, genuine longing for relief in his voice without a trace of his usual mischievous ulterior motives. His father nodded, recognizing what his son was asking of him and let his other half come out so that Holt could repeat the question to him. His father left and a few minutes later, Holt was being allowed to take a short walk up and down the hallway.

"Ugh…do I have to keep the dress on?" he asked as he stood up shakily. "I don't rock the tunic look" he said, Frankie giggling at his discomfort in his clothing. But he smiled as she acted more like she normally did around him. His mother shook her head at him. "Unless you want to walk around butt naked, which I'm not so sure they'd approve of, you're going to have to make this work Holt" his mother said, Holt dropping his head back and groaning. But it seemed that wasn't the smartest move as a wave of dizziness overcame him and Frankie scrambled to help him right himself.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea just yet Holt." She said, not releasing her grip as Holt pulled his headphones on as the last step to prepare for his walk with Frankie. He smirked at her and she just rolled her eyes, internally relieved to find that he really was acting like himself. "Fine. Let's go." She said, following behind him as he walked out. He made another noise of annoyance as the hospital gown continued to bother him, fiddling with it. "Stop that or you're gonna flash everyone." She said, unable to keep from giggling at Holt as he pushed the IV with one hand and felt the need to clench his gown in the other. His parents also laughed, relieved to find this half of their son feeling better, allowing him and Frankie some alone time on their walk.

As they walked, Frankie filled Holt in on what was happening at Monster High and how much everyone had been missing him. "And Jackson?" he warily asked, his depression coming back. Frankie sighed as she thought how to answer. "Yeah…and Jackson. But we can find a way to help your other half too. It'll just take time. I mean, your father's a brilliant scientist so don't lose hope yet." She said, rubbing his back.

"But that's just it Frankie." He stopped in his walk to turn and face her. "How're my parents gonna look at me from now on if he can't do somethin' about this? I'm not sure I can live with what I've done" he said, shaking his head. "I don't think I can be the same Holt Hyde that throws awesome parties, 'cuz I know it ain't right for me to be doin' that anymore." He said.

"Don't say that Holt." Frankie said, losing her composure too as she stood in front of him. "You can't be anything other than who you are." She said. But Holt growled. "I know. And I'm every bit the monster that those people felt the need to get rid of!" he yelled to her, trying to walk around her. Frankie had no patience left for that sort of statement and grabbed his IV. "That's not true and you know it. That's something _they_ would say to you and I expect you to be better than that!" she shouted right back at him.

Holt took a few deep breaths as his anger came to the surface. "Well then what would you have me do? Accident or not, this still happened and I need to do somethin' but all I do is make things difficult." He raised his voice to her, struggling to pull the IV out of his arm since Frankie held fast to the pole and his strength was still diminished.

"Don't do that Holt! That's a stupid move." She said, putting a hand over his to halt his motions. He looked at her directly as his grief came back. "I know. I can't be smart – that was _his_ job!" he shouted to her before yanking the needle out and trying to brush past her, but Frankie tried to keep him from going anywhere as she looked around for help from any nearby nurses. As Holt tried to move away, he pulled out the wire connecting his headphones to his mother's phone, cutting off his connection to the music. His eyes widened as he tried to plug it back in again but Frankie watched as in a flash of flame, Jackson was standing beside her looking confused.

Jackson tried to stand up on his own as he pushed away from Frankie, his gown having come untied in the back and slipping. He hastily gathered it up before it had fallen too low and a blush spread across his face and neck at the situation he had woken up to. "Hah ha…um…hello?" he said, as he looked around.

Frankie wasn't sure how she should handle being with Jackson in his amnesic state. But she realized she couldn't just leave him standing there holding the dressing gown over his privates in complete embarrassment. "Hello Jackson" she said as calmly as she could. Jackson looked at her questioningly for a moment before answering. "Oh right…that's supposed to be me." He said, nodding to her. "I don't suppose you could tell me why I'm standing in the middle of a hallway like this?" he asked her.

"It's okay. We were just going for a walk when your gown slipped and we stopped." She said, not sure whether or not his parents wanted to drop the bomb on him yet that he had an alter ego. As it was, Jackson still looked incredibly confused. "Um…okay then…uh, could you turn around so I can put this back on?" he timidly asked, the blush not receding at all from his face. Frankie did as he asked, waiting for him to tell her that he was decent. Turning back around she saw him smiling at her nervously. "There. All better." He said, Frankie mentally wishing that it was that easy for him to get better. "So, where are we headed?" he asked, itching at his arm as it bled from where Holt had ripped the needle out. "I…don't remember coming out for a walk so I'll leave it up to you to decide." He said as Frankie grabbed his hand to steady him.

"We were just going up and down the hall Jackson." She said as Jackson leaned more heavily on her than Holt had done. Jackson nodded and let her guide him. "Is that really my name?" he turned to ask her, Frankie biting her lip to keep from letting her emotions get the best of her and nodding. "Do you always call me by my whole name? No nickname?" he said. "You could call me Jack" he said to her as she continued to walk in silence, "Y'know, since I don't remember being Jackson it doesn't seem right to call me that." He said, stopping to get her to look at him. "I may not be a genius…" he started, making Frankie internally wince at the choice of wording since she knew in fact that he was, "…but I can tell you don't like me and would rather have your Jackson back."

"But you _are_ Jackson." Frankie said. "You'll remember soon and you'll remember everyone else too." she said, trying to give him an encouraging smile as he just looked at her. The look in his eyes was so different from how he would have looked at her before, but without a trace of Holt's warmth in them either. She shivered as his blue eyes looked so cold and unsettling to her. But Jackson sighed at her response before asking her another question. "If we were going to get some exercise, why don't we head over to the physical therapy room? Plus, it should be covered in mirrors and I can see what I actually look like." He tried to reason with her, giving her a grin that Frankie felt looked more calculating than genuine.

"Oh, that's right!" she said as she brushed aside her misgivings. "You wouldn't know what you look like, would you? Come on. I think that's actually on this floor." She said as she steered Jackson in the direction she had seen the signs indicate was toward the physical therapy room. They passed Heath as he sat in one of the chairs in the lobby for this floor, Frankie giving him a smile as Jackson waved while they passed. Heath returned the wave but looked oddly at Jackson as he walked by the mirror that was decorating the wall. Heath thought it might be his tired mind playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn that while Frankie's reflection showed up as expected, Jackson's reflection was distorted. Waiting until they passed, he told his parents he would be right back and made to follow behind them to see what was happening to his cousin.

* * *

Police officers were finishing up with their questions for Malcolm and Thera now that they were both awake and aware. But it was apparent that the police were getting frustrated with the lack of solid information that their officers had gathered. As a result, in addition to the standard questions, they were also trying to find out if either of them knew what the group that had taken them was up to.

"Does it matter if we blew up all their stuff?" Thera asked as her mother sat beside her. The police officer turned to look directly at her. "And how did you three manage to do that?" he asked, his pad out to record their answers. Thera shrugged. "I stole some stuff from their storage…" she trailed off, her mother squeezing her shoulder as she smiled in recognition of her daughter's cunning skills. The police officer shook his head as he wrote that information down, not questioning it further.

"They'd had all sorts of mirrors in that room too. Jackson was the one to learn that we needed to sneak into that room. They had scribbles written all over the backs of them, burned into them by those chemicals." Malcolm explained, gesturing widely as he did. "But that wasn't where they kept their charms, although they were definitely up to something with those mirrors." He said, looking over to Thera.

Jackson's parents remained standing over by his bed as they waited for their son and his girlfriend to return, talking with one of the doctors about possible treatments. They hadn't been involved too much in the police officers' conversation, but when Malcolm started to talk about all the charms they'd used, they began to pay attention.

"You're sure that you kept its influence from embedding itself in your minds?" Dr. Jekyll asked as he overheard their conversation. Malcolm looked insulted at first before he thought about it and looked a little more sheepish. "Well…towards the end of our spectacular escape, I may not have been blocking all the effects." He admitted, Jackson's mother throwing her hands up in frustration over her inability to control anything. But Malcolm took it, predictably, as a slight to his abilities. "Hey! There was a lot going on and I'm only half leprechaun – I can only do so much." He said, his mother looking ready to fight in her son's defense.

"I know that. I meant nothing against you, just frustrated at the whole situation." Mrs. Jekyll said by way of appeasement. "But explain more about the charms if you can. It might help us to figure out how to help Jackson come back…and what those horrible people were up to." She said, looking to the police officers.

Malcolm fidgeted as all the attention was placed on him, but his father's hand on his shoulder helped to steady him. "Well, they liked to try and tell us what our 'duty' was as they were casting the charm. To be honest, I was too focused on the countering to actually hear everything they were saying to me." He said, scratching his head as he thought.

"Oh! I remember!" Thera spoke up. "It had something to do with releasing what that scribbling was for – we were able to recognize it even in the dark because it was the same stupid writing they've been making us practice over and over again without telling us what language it is or what it means." She said, doing her best to contribute. "It must have been so that if they couldn't get the mirrors out with the engravings or if it cracked, we could repair them." She said.

"Yes, but what was it for?" One of the officers asked her, but she shrugged and looked distressed as she had difficulty recalling all the details. Her mother pulled her closer to her and shot a look at the officer to get him to back off.

"Uh…all I could remember was something about entrapment and shadows…"Malcolm said, turning to Thera. "That's why I said what I did to Jackson while he was still hooked up in the doctor's office." He explained, Jackson's parents flinching when they thought about that for their son.

"Anyway…with the charms…they would individually use them on us and occasionally used more than one." He said, looking to his mom. "I did my best but I dunno if I caught them all." He said, disappointed in himself. But his mother just held his face in her hands and told him how proud she was of her son. But then she turned to face Jackson's parents.

"Charms work on people's perceptions. They must have tried different ones because they weren't getting the reactions they were looking for – it must be why it worked so differently on your son, because he has two consciousnesses." She said, rationalizing things more for herself it seemed as she talked. A growing look of dread began to cross her face. "Those people must have been counting on one of his personalities being able to remember what they had drilled into him…that's why he tried to block things out so he wouldn't fall victim to it – clever boy. But because there are two personalities, he basically put a block up on himself." She said, getting off of her son's bed to pace the floor as she thought things out. Mid-stride she gasped and looked to Jackson's parents. "The version of Jackson that we were talking to clearly isn't him, but rather, a blank version that is essentially what the charm created, like this girl briefly was. It's taking longer to wear off because of those two personalities!" she exclaimed.

"Then we need to go find him – he could still be dangerous if he's planning on doing whatever this group had in mind for him." One of the officers said, motioning for his partner to follow him out into the hall to check in on Frankie and Holt. But the two of them had already moved on. Dr. Jekyll and his wife followed them, looking around urgently to spot their son. Jackson's friends came out of the elevator at this point, spotting the frantic appearances of everyone.

"What's going on?" Cleo asked in a demanding tone. While her tone wasn't all that unusual for the princess, normally the others would be reluctant to divulge information to her because of it. However, Jackson's parents overlooked Cleo's typical nature in favor of having them join them in looking for their son, explaining to the others what they had just discussed.

"But Frankie's with him. He wouldn't try anything with her there." Clawd tried to argue, not understanding why Jackson might be considered dangerous. But Jackson's mother just shook her head as she explained to her son's friends. "He doesn't even remember me – he won't remember her either. He might do anything if he thinks that's what he's supposed to do." She said, clearly distraught over what was happening.

The group nodded as they agreed to help out, turning down one direction while Jackson's parents and the officers went in the other direction. They spotted Heath's parents still sitting in the lobby area, but Heath wasn't with them. "Mr. Burns, have you seen Heath?" Dracualaura asked, hoping that they might be able to provide them with answers.

"He said he'd be right back, but I think he went down that way." Mr. Burns said, pointing in the direction Heath had followed Jackson and Frankie. The others found it odd for him to do that, although he had been known to wonder around into places he shouldn't with his curious nature and that continuously short attention span. They thanked him, trying not to alarm him as Cleo and Abbey hung back to explain to them what Jackson's parents had said to them before rejoining the group while Heath's parents went to follow Jackson's. "We better find him quick. Who knows what Jackson's up to – he may not remember everything, but he's clever. The dude could do some damage." Deuce said as they hurried along in the direction Mr. Burns had indicated, searching for their troubled friend.

* * *

"I don't know why you want to hang out in here." Frankie said, helping Jackson inside. "But there's plenty of mirrors in here for you to get a glimpse of yourself" she said, indicating the three floor to ceiling panels of mirrors that covered the majority of one of the room's walls. She let him go to wander around on his own, looking at the different kinds of equipment in the room and not noticing when Jackson grabbed a marker from off the cart that was in the room as he headed toward the mirrors. She watched as he walked over to the mirror, assuming that the strange look on his face was from seeing himself for what she assumed was the first time. She tiredly smiled and turned back to try and pick up the medicine ball.

"Wow that's heavier than I thought it would be." She said, dropping it back onto the floor. "You know. I'm starting to get to know hospitals better than I thought I would ever need to since I met you…" she tried to joke with him to relieve the tension she felt between them, turning around to face him again. She curiously looked at him as he scribbled onto the mirror, a distant look on his face. "Jackson, what are you doing?" she asked, taking small steps toward him as he appeared to not have heard her. "Jackson?" she tried again with a similar lack of response. She huffed in frustration before reaching out to touch his shoulder and calling out to him again.

Jackson swung around to push her onto the mirror. "Call me Jack" he said as he tossed aside the marker, finished with his work. "I told you, I'm not your Jackson." he said, smiling cruelly at her. Frankie stared at him in absolute confusion before her attention was redirected to the flashing lights and the wind that started to pick up outside and shake the building. She made to push herself off of the mirror to confront Jackson as he took a few steps back as though to admire his work, but found herself stuck to it like the silly string that they had spoken of so long ago before any of this happened. She turned her head to look at the mirror as best she could, noticing how the words Jackson had scribbled were glowing. She whipped her head around to face Jackson, pulling harder as the mirror seemed to turn more liquid around her and begin to pull her into it more.

"Jackson, what are you doing?!" she shouted to him as the windows shook from the wind and made it more difficult to hear them speaking to each other. "Jackson?!" she called out again.

"I'm not your Jackson!" Jackson repeated to her, covering his face as the windows broke and glass spread into the room, the wind picking things up and flinging them around. "And this is what I was meant to do! I'm taking care of all the monsters!" he said to her, uncovering his face to reveal his more manic features. "This will produce the nightmarish reflections of every monster's fears – their doppleganger so to speak – and they will either drag them back into that void or destroy the monster…it's perfect and it will be the ends of all monsters!" he shouted back to her, Frankie struggling more and more as the horror of facing Jackson like this overwhelmed her.

"Jackson stop!" Heath shouted as he burst into the room, pushing open the door with all his strength. "This isn't you!" he shouted as he staggered forward slowly to his cousin against the wind that the spell had summoned. Jackson laughed and turned toward Heath. "That's what I keep trying to tell her – your Jackson might not have done this, but _Jack_ is doing his duty! This _is_ who _I_ am!" he screamed at Heath as he stumbled. "And this is who I was meant to become. Not your Jackson and not that other guy! He was almost gone and you had to bring him back." Jackson said as he approached Heath, knocking him over as his cousin tried to stand up, Heath knocking into one of the exercise pieces.

"Stop it! Stop!" Frankie yelled as she helplessly watched, dismayed to find that shooting out electrical jolts seemed to do nothing to release the hold the mirror had as more of it spread around her. Tears fell from her eyes as she turned to look back into the mirror, seeing dark shapes start to appear as though they were getting closer to her, causing her to scream and turn back away as she renewed her struggles to escape.

Heath and Jackson were wrestling with each other as their friends finally found them, Draculaura and Clawdeen immediately racing over to Frankie before she could warn them. They too found themselves getting stuck as they pulled to get Frankie further out of the mirror, the silver substance of the liquefied mirror stretching with them. Abbey tried to freeze the substance as she struggled over to her friends, resorting to just attempting to frost over the mirror to keep any of those shadows from finding their way out, repeating her efforts as the frost seemed to quickly melt away as the words continued to glow.

Deuce was covering his eyes as his glasses had been blown off his face shortly after they entered. "Clawd!" he shouted out to his friend, waving around in front of him to try and find one of his friends to help direct his gaze. He was seriously considering turning Jackson to stone if he had to in order to stop this, but not knowing where he was exactly was making things difficult. Cleo had tossed one of the exercise ropes to her stuck friends, and was pulling on it with Clawd's help to keep the three girls from getting pulled in further. Deuce looked down, scanning the floor for something to smash the mirror with as he continued to listen for the general direction of his friends to avoid looking in their direction. Various things were turned to stone as he looked around until he grabbed something heavy enough to do the job for him. "Everybody down!" he shouted as he tossed the petrified piece of something into the mirror, cracking it. Deuce looked down again as he searched for something else to finish smashing the mirror with as Jackson and Heath continued to struggle.

"Jackson, come on!" Heath said, pushing his cousin off of him. "I don't want to hurt you but you're making this difficult." He shouted to him, although Jackson didn't seem to be particularly concerned with Heath's inner battle. He picked himself up from where he had been kneeling, his gown amazingly remaining on him still. Deuce repeated his warning and Heath used Jackson's momentary distraction as he screamed when the mirror shattered to blast Jackson with a fireball. It knocked Jackson backward, head over heels as he smashed into and over a piece of equipment that had been tossed around, lying still on the floor as he was knocked unconscious.

Immediately the wind stopped howling and Franke, Draculaura and Clawdeen were freed from the mirror as the silver liquid slipped off of them and turned back into shards of mirror onto the floor. They collapsed onto Cleo and Clawd as their efforts to pull their friends to them suddenly worked, lying in a huddled heap on the floor as they all caught their breaths.

"Jackson!" Heath yelled as he scrambled to get over to his injured cousin. "Oh man…Jackson?" he said as he gingerly touched his cousin's now uncovered shoulder. Clawd was the first to get up, miraculously spotting Deuce's glasses still in one piece and grabbing them for his friend to put back on before the two of them went over to help Heath with Jackson.

Jackson lay face-down on the floor, his gown partially on the piece of the equipment and partially covering him. Deuce pulled it off of where it was stuck so that he could cover his friend as they rolled him over to check on him. "Jackson!" Heath called out again as his cousin continued to be unresponsive to his calls. Heath placed his head on Jackson's chest and waited, pulling back and nodding to his friends that Jackson was still with them. He continued to try and wake his cousin up as Jackson's parents and doctors came rushing in. They pulled Heath, Deuce and Clawd away so they could look over Jackson, lifting him up to place him on a gurney that had been sitting in the hall, blown there by the winds that had torn through this section of the hospital floor. They rushed him back to his room to begin to care for him, his friends following behind.

* * *

Jackson was set up in his bed again, looking worse than he'd had before, although nowhere near the state he had been in when he first was brought in. His parents were back to hovering around his bedside, as doctors and nurses began to attend to him. They were talking fast, only occasionally addressing Jackson's father to let him know what they were concerned about. Jackson's friends explained what had happened to a very curious Malcolm and Thera while they waited to be allowed near Jackson again. As the team of nurses left, the doctor pulled Jackson's parents aside to talk quietly with them, but Jackson's mother wasn't capable of keeping anything quiet at this point.

"What?!" she shouted in repsonse to something he had said, holding herself as her husband wrapped an arm around her. The doctor sighed and looked to Dr. Jekyll who nodded and let the doctor leave as he sat his wife down to explain to her what the doctor meant, Frankie and the others also gathering around. "Why did you let him leave? You may be a doctor but you're not that kind of doctor honey…what's wrong with Jackson this time?" Mrs. Jekyll said, face displaying her emotions.

"He said that he's going to need to do more tests, that's why he left – to go set them up. But based on what they've already checked him for…" Dr. Jekyll said, taking a deep breath to be able to continue. "Based on what they've already examined, sweetie…they don't think he's going to wake up anytime soon. He may never wake up when Jackson is out, but Holt might still be able to be triggered." His father explained, visibly having a hard time explaining this and keeping from his other half being triggered too. Frankie gasped at this news, looking back to Jackson sleeping in the bed.

"They won't know for sure though until they've done more tests? He might wake up on his own any minute though…" Jackson's mother asked her husband, tears falling down her face again. Dr. Jekyll shrugged as his wife pulled him into a hug. The others in the room also felt the need to hang onto each other as they heard what the doctors thought for Jackson. "But…honey…that's not everything." Dr. Jekyll said as he pulled away to continue talking with his wife. She looked at him incredulously as though the news couldn't get any worse.

"When Holt's transformation is over, this is how Jackson will be transformed back, into this comatose state. That kind of stress on Holt without having the other half of himself being at least semi-aware like Jackson had been…the doctors estimate that…and they have no way of knowing for sure since this isn't a typical human case they're dealing with…" he started to ramble, his wife gesturing for him to just tell her. "They think that stress will physically wear him out within eight to ten months…that's all the time they think he has left." Dr. Jekyll said, tears beginning to silently roll down his face as his wife's mouth dropped in horror and she flung herself out of her seat to hug her son.

Frankie reached out to Clawdeen's shoulder to steady herself at this news, Heath already being held by Abbey. "Is it because I…" he stammered out, but his parents knew where he was going with his question. His father walked over to his son, pulling him and Abbey into his arms. "No Heath. This had nothing to do with how you stopped him. It's from what those people did to him." He said as his son let his head fall onto his father's chest.

"But maybe this is just the charm wearing off, like it did for her." Clawd said, indicating Thera as she watched with her mother by her side. Dr. Jekyll shrugged again, before returning to holding his son's hand. Shortly, a couple of nurses came back in to wheel Jackson away so they could run the tests Dr. Jekyll had explained to everyone. Mrs. Jekyll sat back down into the chair as soon as she watched the elevator doors close with her son and the nurses inside, giving into her loud sobs as she tried to comprehend what was happening.

* * *

Jackson slowly came back into consciousness, not sure of what was going on. His last semi-coherent thought was when he had crawled out of the river and was wandering around the forest with Malcolm. He noticed that his head felt much better but as he looked around, he began to panic. His first thought at spotting himself on a gurney with two men he didn't recognize, was that he must have passed out and been found by his kidnappers who brought him back to do who knows what to him. Not thinking too long on things, he decided he was going to fight back with everything he had, including using his own fire abilities while the men were still unaware that he was awake.

He called a flame to his hand and set the sheets of the gurney on fire. When the two men jumped back in surprise, Jackson rolled himself off the bed and pushed the burning gurney on its side to block himself from the men, rushing out the elevator doors that opened on his side and hitting the button on the wall to close the doors and bring them back upstairs. He heard shouts but didn't listen, not caring to see where he had been brought as he sprinted with all his effort to keep from being captured.

* * *

The doctor that had been speaking with Jackson's parents returned to the room, rushing over to speak with them again. "Good news is your son's woken up" he said to them, Mrs. Jekyll's eyes widening in happiness. "But the bad news is he's set fire to one of the gurneys and the nurses with him have lost him. He's running loose in the building and I don't have any idea if he's sane or not." He said, spurring his father to leap into action to help the doctor find his son.

"We need to go look for him too. He could be anywhere." Frankie said, her own tears drying up at the news as she stood from her seat to face her friends. They nodded and began to split up. Deuce and Cleo on one floor, Heath and Abbey on another, Clawd and Draculaura on the next, and Frankie and Clawdeen on the remaining floor that Heath's parents or Jackson's weren't going to search.

Jackson was doing his best to try and find a way out, holding his gown to him as he ran through the staircase as quickly as he could, his bare feet slapping against the metal steps. He pushed open the door to the next floor, hoping that it would lead him to the exit so that he could find his way back to town. He knew he wasn't back at the same building that he'd been held in for over a month. But he wasn't sure of how long he'd been unconscious and thought that if it had been long enough, they definitely could have moved him if what the doctor had been saying to him before was anything to go by.

As he clung to the wall as he snuck around, he reached a corner and was about to continue onward until he heard the elevator ting as it arrived on the floor. He quickly pulled back around and slid towards the floor to peek around the corner. He was astounded when instead of more nurses or other humans, Cleo and Deuce walked out into the hallway. Cleo took the lead as Deuce followed his girlfriend, Jackson standing up as he stared after them in disbelief.

"Oh, eww! What did I just touch? Deuce, do something…" Cleo's voice drifted back to Jackson as he began to walk past the elevator to continue on with his previous plan of getting out. He wasn't sure whether or not to trust what he was seeing, as he felt dizzy already from whatever medication he had been given.

"Relax, Cleo. Don't get all worked up. It's probably nothing." Deuce said, his voice getting closer and Jackson looked around for something to hide behind. He watched as he crouched behind a gurney, waiting for Deuce to come back, but when he didn't see him right away, he decided to try and dart over to the next hallway. But as he did, he ran into someone who grunted at the shock and impact. Jackson tried to continue sprinting away, but his gown was held tight.

"Jackson! Dude! Jackson, it's me!" Deuce said as he held onto the little clothing Jackson still had on. Jackson stopped pulling away to stare at his friend with wide eyes, Cleo hurrying over to them, phone already out to text the others that they had found Jackson and were going to bring him back. Jackson blinked a few times before finding his voice. "Deuce?" he said, laughing a little before he launched himself at his friend and wrapping his arms around him. "Oh, man…I don't care if you're a hallucination. I'm so glad to see you two again." Jackson said as he sagged into Deuce's hold.

"Hey, you remember me? Cleo too?" Deuce asked, causing Jackson to pull back a little with Deuce still holding onto his arms tightly in case he should take off again if his mind was still shifting around. But Jackson just stared at him confused. "Yes…why? What's happened?" Jackson asked, trying to get his friend to let him go as he rapidly looked between Cleo and Deuce. But his dizziness caught up with him and he stumbled a little, remaining upright thanks to Deuce.

"Let's get you back to your parents and then we can explain everything, okay dude?" Deuce said gently, wrapping one of Jackson's arms around his shoulder with Cleo taking the other to do the same as they dragged Jackson into the elevator to bring him upstairs. Jackson looked like things were starting to get to be too much for him, breathing heavily as he attempted to understand things while still not trusting himself with what he saw and heard.

"We need some help over here!" Cleo shouted as Jackson leaned heavily on her and Deuce as they got off the elevator on the floor for Jackson's room, Jackson slipping back into unconsciousness. Immediately, nurses came to help carry Jackson back into his room for another time. "He may be going into shock" one of the nurses said as they placed him gently back onto his bed, replacing the wires again for the monitors. It was plain to everyone in the room that Jackson was breathing heavily and experiencing discomfort, the monitors sounding as they picked up on his stress. The doctors and nurses administered Jackson and he calmed down a little, his parents and the others arriving shortly afterward.

"What's happening?" Heath asked as he ran in with Abbey, watching the scene play out in front of him. But nobody was willing to give him any answers right away as the doctors and nurses still were concerned with Jackson.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Dr. Jekyll shouted to the nurses, coming over to stand beside his son's bed. The others tensed as they could hear the anger in his voice, expecting his transformation to occur any second. "You can't do that to my son!" he said, pulling one of the nurses away as he saw them strapping his son into the bed.

"We have to sir! He's been violent and keeps running off on his own! It won't hurt him but it's for his own good." The doctor said to Dr. Jekyll, attempting to calm his patient's father down. "He's staying strapped to that bed." He said firmly, pulling the curtain around Jackson to keep him isolated from the rest of the room. But that was the last straw for Dr. Jekyll, who transformed into his other half and violently growled at the doctor as he was released.

The doctor was startled and made the unwise decision of taking a swing at Mr. Hyde, who only slightly stumbled back from the blow before he glared back at the doctor and lunged at him, the nurses trying to assist in breaking up the fight. But Mr. Hyde simply flung them off of him as he put the doctor into a vicious headlock position, Malcolm's mother making approving noises as she watched the fight as though it was an actual boxing match. The others tried to stay out of the way, pushing themselves against the wall to avoid getting too close.

As this was happening, Jackson began to wake up again, the nurses not having given him the sedative yet. He heard the commotion going on and tried to get up, not able to see anything other than the blue curtain that had been pulled around his bed. But he found himself strapped to the bed, panicking at the thought that he had simply dreamed up his encounter with his friends. "No, no no…." he mumbled as he began to hyperventilate again, struggling with all his strength to get out of his bonds, the monitors going off again as they picked up on Jackson's movements. He twisted as much as he could, breathing heavily as he fought to get himself free.

"Jackson!" he heard his mother shout out to him, the curtain pulling back for him to see her coming over to him. "Jackson…it's okay. Calm down, honey, just breathe." She said as she got into the bed beside him, letting him rest his head on her shoulder as he tried to control his breathing. She pet his head comfortingly, watching the monitors as Jackson's heartrate continued to skyrocket. "Come on honey, it's okay." She repeated, placing a hand onto his chest as though she could calm his racing heart just by her touch.

She continued to make soothing noises to him as his breathing became more regular as he calmed down more, the doctors not sure if they could go over to check on their patient. Instead, they continued to let Jackson's mother do what she was doing since it seemed to be working. As soon as Jackson seemed able to, he rubbed his head onto his mother's shoulder. "Mom? Is it really you?" he asked, sounding like he was talking through tears of his own. "Please be real, please be you. I can't go back. I'll go mad again…" he said to her, whining as he again pulled limply at his restraints.

"Oh baby, it's me. It's me." She said as she brought the hand that had been resting on his chest up to his face to get him to look at her. "You're safe now. I promise. You're safe." She said as she held her son to her, the relief seen on her face that he had recognized her and seemed to be himself again. "I'll get these off you. Just hold still Jackson." she said, not waiting for the nurses to come back over and instead shooting careful and controlled burst of flame at the restraints to take them off her son. Mr. Hyde shook the last of the nurses off of him and rushed over to his son as he helped his wife. As soon as they were off of him completely, she pulled him tightly into her arms, Jackson clutching onto her too while his father enveloped them both.

"Whoa…" Thera breathed out, unable to keep from saying anything, her mother shushing her before pulling her closer to her as well. Frankie looked over to Heath, unsure of how long they should wait before they headed over to talk with Jackson too, not wanting to interrupt as he was smothered by his parents. Heath simply shrugged but gave her a beaming smile as they realized that while he may need another day in the hospital to rest up, Holt and Jackson were put back together again.

* * *

Frankie and the others spent the night at a hotel, not willing to drive home as their friend remained in the hospital. They were also exhausted from not really getting any sleep other than the brief snatches they had gotten in the uncomfortable chairs in the lounges at the hospital as they shifted in and out of Jackson's room. Their parents had driven out to meet them too and had met them at the hotel where they slept late into the morning on Monday. They checked out and headed back to the hospital to visit with Jackson for a few hours before reluctantly driving back home since they had all been told that despite their concern, they should let Jackson and Holt adjust with his family, only Heath remaining behind for the next couple of days before all three of those kidnapped were released.

The day after he had returned back home, Holt walked back through the front door of Monster High to find a large 'Welcome Back Jackson &amp; Holt' banner hanging from the staircases in the main entrance. He laughed as his friends shot streamers into the air to welcome him back, Frankie rushing into his arms as his friends swarmed him.

"Oh it is good to be back" Holt said as he walked hand-in-hand with Frankie through the hallways. "Even if it school…" he whispered to her, earning an eye roll from Frankie as she laughed at him. But she hugged him close to her as often as she could, sitting beside him in every class they shared that morning.

"Not that I'm asking you to change, but what made the two of you decide to let _you_ out to spend the first day back at school?" Frankie asked as they met up in the hallway again before their Mad Science class. "Jackson feel bad about you being cooped up for so long?"

Holt nodded his head at Frankie's conclusion. "Yeah…I've been the dominant one it seems for the past couple of days, but only because Jackson keeps leaving me messages about how he wants to be sure that whatever got us out of balance gets put back into place." He explained, checking the battery on his phone. "To be honest, there are only so many of these classes that I can handle – that's up to him. I think he just wants a break or somethin'" he joked with her as they both knew how seriously Jackson regarded his studies.

"Well, Mad Science is next period. I don't think Jackson will mind spending the rest of the day out if that's what he starts with." She said, giving Holt a kiss to let him know that she understood if he decided not to let Jackson take over. "But I would have thought you'd be jumping at the chance to be the, like you said, the 'dominant one' for a while – but I guess that's just because Jackson keeps triggering you." She said.

Again, Holt nodded as Frankie finished up getting her things from her locker since he didn't seem to care to get any of his stuff for class. "Yeah, normally it's a blast when he decides to let us be _me_ for a long time, like that Halloween. Y'know, before all that funny business." He said, shivering at the thought.

"Maybe Jackson feels like you'll be safer if you two are _you_ right now." Frankie said as she looked sympathetically at Holt. "I wouldn't blame you too. It's why he felt the need to keep you out that Halloween and maybe he's…well, have you two been talking through your phone?" she asked as they took their seats. Holt shifted around uncomfortably as he avoided answering. "Holt…" Frankie prompted.

"Hey, it ain't me this time!" Holt defended himself in his typical boisterous tone, gaining himself a few looks that he didn't seem to care enough to notice. "Jackson ain't talkin' to nobody. I'm glad he's back – makes me feel better too with being whole again – but we ain't talking in our minds anymore and he's being difficult with everybody." Holt said as he ran a hand across his face. "He's making _me_ look like the goody goody one with his attitude. He's refusing to even talk to _dad _and he's the best at this stuff." He said, slumping forward onto the desk. Frankie bit her lip as she thought over what she may need to do.

"Holt…"she said, giving him a hug before asking her question. "Can you let him out now?" she asked, Holt huffing as he sat back into his chair again as their teacher began to walk into the room and began to set up his lesson plan. "Yeah…Good luck" he said before taking his headphones off as their teacher started to begin his lecture, cutting off what he was saying as he transformed in a flash of fire. Jackson was back with them, looking around in confusion before realizing where he was.

"Nice to see you again Jackson" Mr. Hackington said as he greeted his most talented student. Jackson looked back wide-eyed in his surprise at being let out. He stammered out a hello before scrambling for his phone and headphones. "Why did Holt…" he mumbled but Frankie put her hands on his to stop him from triggering his alter ego. She smiled nervously at Mr. Hackington, who nodded at them, realizing Jackson needed a minute or two and gestured for him and Frankie to step outside.

"Frankie I shouldn't be out." Jackson said, trying to get his phone out Frankie's hands with little success. "Yes you should Jackson. You love Mad Science. Why did you really want to trigger Holt to sit in on class – the whole day actually? In case you hadn't noticed, these banners everywhere have your name on them too." she said, indicating the one hanging at the end of the hallway for him to look at. Jackson looked like he wanted to argue for his phone again but, seeing how stubborn his girlfriend was in her quest to help him, he sighed and made his way over to sit on the windowsill.

"Because I don't know how I'm supposed to act, or what I'm supposed to do." He said, Frankie coming to sit next to him. "I'm still afraid Frankie." He said as he looked to her with wide eyes as he tried not to cry at school. Frankie pulled him into a hug as she let him confide in her at his own pace. "I'm scared that whatever they tried to do to me will go off again at any time – that trying to let me as _me_ fit back in _here_ won't work anymore." He said. "A human can be just as dangerous as a monster, and I'm scared that I won't be able to have what I had before and I can't face that…so…I've been letting Holt do the work. I've been out plenty long enough without giving him a turn anyway – I owe him some time." He said as he concluded his rant to her.

"Jackson…"Frankie said, trying not to think back at the way he had looked at her when he was under the charm's lingering influence. "You can still be _you_ and we wouldn't – _I_ wouldn't - want you to try and be anything different. The charm isn't able to do anything else anymore – Malcolm's mother checked you and Holt over twice before she let you leave." Frankie reassured her boyfriend.

"You can't keep focusing on the worst. We need to move on and just, continue to be ourselves. Don't do anything to change who you are." Frankie said, standing up in front of Jackson and forcing his head up to look at her. "Mistakes will happen but everybody makes them. You're only human…well…you know what I mean." Frankie said, Jackson giving her a small smile. She pulled him back up onto his feet to lead him back to class.

"I know what I said won't fix everything immediately. But let's start with Mad Science class and go from there." she said, opening the door to push Jackson inside. He blushed as he was suddenly the center of everyone's attention as he walked back to his seat, Frankie following behind him.

"Glad to see you back Jackson" Mr. Hackington tried to greet him again. Jackson nodded before settling in and sending him a small but genuine smile. "Good to be back sir" he said, the words having so much more meaning behind them. Frankie smiled as she watched Jackson slowly let himself be more comfortable with being himself. There might be some more moments of doubt, but probably no more than normal for anyone to have. She tried to listen to what the lecture was about, but wasn't able to help herself from looking around at their friends as she realized that no matter what, they were all there for each other.


End file.
